Desert Wolf
by chrono96
Summary: "She's leaving and wants me to run away with her." The pack have finally found the desert wolf. When things start to get rocky between Malia and Stiles, will something spark between him and Lydia? - Basically what I want to happen at the end of season 5. - Stiles/Lydia/Stydia (I only intended this to be 2-3 chapters, but I got carried away!)
1. Malia

After months of continuous 'detective' work (as Stiles liked to call it), they finally found what they had been looking for. Yes, if you might have guessed, the pack tracked down the desert wolf. But now there were other problems they were going to have to deal with. Well, Malia and Stiles were going to have to deal with, more like.

They had just gotten back from speaking to Malia's mother. She definitely wasn't what they pictured that she would be - mean, dark, killing-anything-in-a-mile-radius - she was actually a kind, loving woman. Or coyote. Whatever you wanted to call her.

They talked for a while about where she had been, what she had been doing, and then she asked to speak to Malia privately for a few minutes; completely overjoyed to see her again. She was now going to stay with Derek for a few days, before they decided to do anything else.

Malia and Stiles were silent in the car ride home, and he knew that her mom must have said something to her.

"I need to sleep." Malia states, as soon as they walk into Stiles' room. She was now facing the opposite way of him, and he sighed.

"Not until we talk." Stiles mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"We have been talking, Stiles. We're talking now. I'm tired." She remarked plainly, and he walks over to the other side of the bed to face her. He kneels down, and she squints one of her eyes open briefly, then quickly shuts it. He laughs, and rubs his hand on her back.

He knew she was upset about something. He used to think she was always upset with him because she would always give him the cold shoulder, but he quickly learned that he knew exactly when she was mad at him. She never tried to hide it, and was always straight-forward with it.

"We need to talk about your mom." He sighed, and she slowly fully opens her eyes. She sighs, and props her chin on her hand.

"What about her?" She huffs, refraining from another eye roll.

"Just...what did she say to you exactly?" He asks, trying not to pry too much.

"None of your business!" She exclaimed, suddenly getting defensive.

"Whoa, whoa!" He says, holding his hands up. "I'm not doing this for my own personal gain. I'm your boyfriend, Malia, and I know there's something wrong."

"I can take care of myself." She says, not budging.

"Look, I know that better than anyone. Trust me. But you can talk to me. You don't have to act like this with me, you know?" He says, crawling into bed next to her.

"I know. Sorry." She says, shaking her head. "Just promise not to go all... _Stiles_ about it, okay?"

"Um, I can't promise that." He says, but then sees the menacing look on her face. "Okay, I promise."

"Good." She laughs, sitting up. So he does too. She blurts it out before he can prepare himself. "She's leaving and wants me to run away with her."

He sits there speechless. He hadn't even thought of that possibility, which he realized was dumb on his part. What was he supposed to say to this?

"Well?" She says, snapping her finger. He looks up at her, and swallows hard.

"What did you tell her?" He asks quietly.

"I told her I'd think about it." She shrugs, seeming completely careless. Then he realized something that he never wanted to realize. "She says that she'll train me everything she knows, and we could catch bad people together. No more math, Stiles. What do you think?"

"I...I think you should go." He says, surprising himself. And her.

"What?" She asks, furrowing her eyebrows. She obviously wasn't expecting it, and neither was he.

"I think you should do it." He says again, more sure of himself. "It's not that I want you to. I love you, Malia; I don't want you to leave. But I think it's best if you went with your mom."

"Well I don't want to leave you." She says, surprised. She wasn't even hurt by it.

"It's just...this isn't fair for you. All this schoolwork, and being held back a year. You don't have any family here. I know you don't like it." He says, clenching his jaw. "If I had...if I had any sort of chance to see my mom again, of course I would take it. It's not fair of me to keep you from that."

"Yeah. I don't like it here. But I like you, Stiles." She says, thinking. "What about you?"

"I realized that you don't care about me like I care about you. You never will. It's okay, it's just who you are. You don't need me." He says, and she gulps.

"I don't need anyone." She says, shrugging. "I will miss you though."

"Thanks." He says, feeling even more pain than he thought he would.

"Will you be okay?" She asks, actual concern showing in her face and voice.

"Yeah. This whole me and you thing wasn't right anyway. It wasn't right to you." He says, shaking his head.

"What do you mean?" She asks, putting her hand on his.

"I wish I didn't have to tell you this. I feel horrible." He says, shaking his head with shame.

"Just spit it out, Stiles." She sighs.

"I'm...I'm in love with Lydia. Well, _still_ in love with Lydia, more like. I don't think I'll ever get over her. It's not fair of me to keep you here when I love someone else. I don't think I could ever care about anyone as much as I care about her." He spills out, feeling relieved, but also guilty. He never wanted to hurt Malia, but he had to let her know that he'd be fine. Maybe this was the best way.

"I know. I always knew you loved her, Stiles." She laughs, making him look up at her.

"You didn't care? That I was dating you but I loved Lydia?" He asks, mad at himself enough for the both of them.

"It doesn't matter." She laughs, seeming slightly confused. She didn't understand what was so wrong about that.

"It does matter, Malia. I'm a huge asshole. You deserve better than me." He says, upset.

"I love you, Stiles. But I'm not in love with you. I know you're not the person I'm going to be with forever. I'm glad you have found your mate, though. It makes me happy that you will be happy." She says, smiling slightly. He was surprised. She was completely right.

"She just...she's my 'mate' or whatever, but I don't think I'm hers. It happens like that to humans sometimes." He says, putting his face in his hands.

"She loves you too. Maybe she doesn't know it yet, but she does." She smiles, hugging him. "You're the best man I've ever met, Stiles. Thank you so much for everything you and your family have done for me." She says, and he knows she's talking about the pack too.

"We all love you, and will miss you so much. Especially me." He says, feeling despair settle in him. She held his face in her hands, and kissed him. It was only friendly now; to show her affection.

Kira taught Malia how to use her swords once, and Malia was so excited, that she tackled Kira and tried to kiss her. She got confused when 'Kira wouldn't kiss back like Stiles did'. So that lead to Stiles having to sit down and talk to her about why you aren't supposed to kiss your friends.

"Thanks, Stiles. I'll never forget you." She smiles, pressing her forehead against his.

"I won't forget you either." He laughs, feeling tears threatening to fill his eyes.

"She told me to come meet her if I decided to do it. I need to go." She says, climbing off the bed. "Tell your dad thank you for everything. Don't let them come look for me."

"Okay." He chokes out, nodding his head. He stood by the window as she grabbed some of her clothes. "You might want to go see Kira. She'll kick your ass if you don't tell her goodbye."

"Yeah, I'll go by and see her." She laughs, opening the window. "Stiles?"

"Yeah?" He asks, biting the inside of his cheek.

"Go after Lydia." She smiles, and hugs him. He laughs, hugging her tightly, and then letting go. She threw her clothes out the window, and then climbed through.

"I love you, Stiles. I'll find a way to keep in contact." She smiles up at him, before jumping down, and disappearing into the night. He tried to watch her, but by the time he looked down, she was gone.

He sat on his bed, feeling empty. His girlfriend was gone. Well, ex girlfriend. That was that.

He considered what she said. Talk to Lydia. He thought about it for a second, and just by doing that, his heart started to race.

"Nope." He said to himself, shaking his head. There was no way he could do that. But on the other hand, Malia asked him to do this. He should. Plus, they were both single right now. Lydia could show up next week with a new boyfriend, and then he'd have to end up waiting even longer. He knew himself, and he knew that if he didn't do it now, he probably never would.

He stood up, and grabbed his jacket. Adrenaline pumped through him, as he made his way downstairs. He grabbed the knob for the front door, and internally fought himself. What would he say to her? More importantly, what would she say? He hadn't even thought this through. He sat on the couch, with his face in his hands.

He pushed all of that worry away, and stood up again. He couldn't go his whole life without her knowing how he felt. He was being a baby. He made his way out, and got in his jeep. For once, Stiles Stilinski was being spontaneous.


	2. Confession

"I'm in love with you, Lydia." Stiles says quietly, licking his lips nervously.

"God, no." He says, shaking his head. He looked away from the mirror that he was talking to himself in, and put his face in his hands. "No, no, no."

He had been in Lydia's driveway for almost ten minutes, trying to figure out what to say to her. He couldn't just waltz in there and not have anything to say, but he also couldn't think of a single thing he _could_ say to her that wouldn't completely humiliate him.

"Stiles?" He hears a muffled voice suddenly, along with a soft knock on his window. It frightened him so much, that he whipped his head up and hit it on his ceiling.

"Oh - Lydia." He says, rolling his window down. "What's...what's up?"

"Stiles. You're the one in my driveway. What are _you_ doing here exactly?" She asks, crossing her arms.

"Nothing. It was nothing. Absolutely nothing." He laughs, and then shakes his head and looks down when he realizes how completely fake that laugh sounded.

"My God." She says, and he looks up. For a second he thought she was going to walk back into her house; not caring what he had to say. But as he watches her, he realizes that she's walking around to the passenger side. She gets in, and he feels her staring at him. His stomach felt like he had just ridden a shitty falling-apart carnival ride one too many times.

"I'm not getting out of the car until you tell me. I heard your Jeep pull up, and then I looked out the window and waited for you to get out. But you didn't." She says, still staring at him. He sighs loudly, and finally turns to her.

"Malia...Malia left. She left." He says, and puts his head on the steering wheel.

"What?! Where did she go? Is she okay?!" She asks in a sudden panic, about to pull on the door handle.

"No. No, she's fine." He says, shaking his head. He's silent for a moment, and then he turns to look at her sadly. Suddenly she grasped what he was saying.

"She left with her mom." Lydia whispered, and he nodded. "Why? Why didn't you stop her?"

"I told her to go." He said, and she looked at him, confused.

"Why would you do that, Stiles?" She asks quietly.

"She wanted to. She hates it here, Lydia, she even admitted it. She lived so long as a coyote, and now she hates being human. Plus, I told her that if I had a chance to be with my mom again, I'd do it. It wasn't fair that I could hold her back from that when I'd do the same." He says, leaning back in his seat. He could barely see Lydia because it was so dark outside, but his eyes were adjusting.

"Who else knows?" She gulps sadly.

"Probably Kira by now. She went to tell her goodbye. She said to tell you bye, too." He sighs, and presses his head against the seat.

"So that's it? She's gone? She wanted to be with her mom, so you just let her leave? You could have compromised, Stiles. She was your girlfriend." She says, still confused.

"There was...there was another reason I told her to go." He gulps, getting that familiar sensation he feels when he's around Lydia. Except this time it was multiplied by a thousand.

"And what was that?"

"You." He whispers, barely loud enough for her to hear.

"What do you mean?" She asks, but he knew she probably had a good idea about what he was talking about. This was one of the hardest things he ever had to do, because he knew that she knew he liked her. If that makes sense. Best case scenario, though, is that she had been in love with him this whole time too, and was just waiting for him to confess his love for her.

Of course that wouldn't happen, though. If Lydia Martin was in love with someone, she would tell them. He envied that about her.

"You know what I mean, Lydia. I know you do. It wasn't right to keep Malia here, when I...when I'm completely in love with you. Nothing that I've been doing is fair to her. Or myself." He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Silence. Silence. Silence. She didn't say anything. Nothing. Not a gasp, not a groan, not even a laugh. That wouldn't be ideal, but it would be better than the painful quietness that was going on now. He wanted to get out of the car and run as fast as he could. Stiles Stilinski had been through a lot of humiliating things, but this most definitely takes the cake.

"Stiles...I'm sort of seeing someone." She says, biting her lip.

"Oh. Oh, my God. Oh my God." He laughs, his heart feeling crushed. "I just embarrassed myself so much."

"No! No, it's not like that. It's okay. I'm...I'm sorry. I feel bad." She says, and he can just feel the awkward atmosphere around them.

"You shouldn't! Really. It's not your fault. I mean...It's not your fault that I completely just...humiliated myself." He laughs, shaking his head. He had never regretted saying something more than he did right now.

"No, it wasn't humiliating. It's just...you know." She says, but he didn't know. If she wasn't seeing someone, then would she want to date him too? Or was she relieved that she was dating someone when he finally told her how he felt, so she wouldn't have to feel guilty about saying she didn't feel the same way? Or, worst of all, what if she had made up this guy she was 'dating' so she could let him down easy? But he doubted that. She wouldn't do that.

"So...is it serious with this guy? Is it a secret or something?" He asks, not exactly ready for an answer.

"No. No to the secret, I mean. A lot of people know. We haven't really told people, but we're not keeping it a secret either. And yes to the serious part. I guess. We haven't really talked about it." She says, but he feels too sick to respond. He didn't know what to say. "His name is Alex. By the way."

"Oh. Okay." He laughs awkwardly, and gulps.

"I'm so sorry, Stiles. I am." She whispers, and puts her hand on his arm.

"Don't be. Really." He says, trying to sound okay. Even though he wasn't at all. "It's fine. I'm fine."

"Okay." She says, turning away. "I guess...I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah. I'll see you." He smiles as best as he can, and her hand hesitates on the door handle. She let's go, and turns to him, and kisses his cheek. She looks at him for a second, and then gets out, and walks to her house.

He smiles and puts his hand on his face where she kissed him, and then drove back to his house. He was still sad, of course, but she just kissed him (sort of), and that was a step.

He laid in his bed smiling, and could barely sleep because his stomach was still turning hours later. Maybe tomorrow wouldn't be so bad.


	3. Lydia's Boyfriend

"I guess we just hadn't talked about it in a while. I thought you had maybe gotten over Lydia or something." Scott says, in the passenger side of Stiles' Jeep on the way to school.

"I wish I had. God, I don't think I'll ever get over her. And now I completely embarrassed myself in front of her, too. Which is...awesome, really." Stiles says, shaking his head.

"I doubt it was that bad, dude. She probably...you know, forgot it even happened." He says, trying to be supportive. It didn't help.

"Trust me, it was worse than you can imagine." Stiles replies, trying not to think about it. "I should have just stayed home today."

"No you shouldn't have! You told her, man. That was really brave; you should be proud." He tells him, patting his arm.

"Thanks." He sighs, slumping his shoulders. "I can't believe Malia's gone."

"I know. Kira's pretty upset about it too. We all are." Scott tells him, as Stiles pulls into the school's parking lot.

"I'm glad I told her to go. I may be miserable, but at least she isn't." He tries to laugh, but it comes out more like a croak.

"I'm sorry dude. You'll be okay. You know I'm here for you, and you can talk to Kira and everything if you need a girls view. They're the best at making people feel better. She might be able to help with your Lydia problem, too." Scott offers, and Stiles nods.

"Yeah, I might just do that." He sighs again, and unbuckles his seatbelt.

"Come over and hang out tonight. Kira and Liam can come, too. Maybe it'll get your mind off of it." Scott tells him, and Stiles nods.

"Yeah. Sounds good." He smiles, being glad he has something to look forward to.

"Oh my God," Scott whispers, looking past Stiles out the window.

"What? You just offere-"

"-No, look." He cuts him off, and points out the window.

"No, no, no, no, no, no! Oh my God. Are you kidding me? She's dating _that_ guy? Wow, I really don't have a friggin' chance." Stiles says, banging his head on the steering wheel.

"He's not... _that_ great looking." Scott says, unconvincingly. Stiles rolls his eyes, and sits up to get another look.

Lydia was throwing her head back laughing, and her hand was holding this guys as they walked into the schools doors. He was tall - much taller than Stiles - and his shoulders were broad, and his arms were muscle-y.

"God, are you joking, Scott? Me and this guy aren't even the same freakin' species!" He whines, and puts his forehead against the steering wheel again.

"Come on, Stiles. You're way better looking than him. And you've got a great personality, bro." Scott says, patting his back. All Stiles could do was groan.

"Let's just go. We'll miss first period." He says, and they both get out of the jeep.

* * *

Stiles had to watch Lydia and 'Alex' make out for five minutes at her locker between first and second period. Finally, Scott and Kira showed up. Stiles moved them so they blocked out the view of Lydia.

"Thank God." He sighs, finally relaxing.

"Sorry, Stiles." Kira says, smiling encouragingly. "Scott told me what happened during first period."

"It's fine. I'm just...trying not to think about it. It's hard when they're eating each others faces off right in front of me, though." He groans, and slides down his locker.

"I'll talk to her. She probably doesn't even realize she's doing it." Kira says, lacing her fingers with Scott's. "I'm sure she isn't doing it to hurt you."

Then the bell rang.

"I'll see you in fourth." Scott says, giving him a small smile.

"See ya." Stiles replies, and Kira kisses Scott, before she walks to second period with Stiles.

"So we're hanging out at Scott's tonight, right?" Kira asks, changing the subject.

"Yeah! I think Liam's coming, too." He says, sitting down in his seat in math class. Kira sat beside him, and they talked until class started.

* * *

"Liam's in. Just go home and grab some clothes, then come. You can just stay over there with me tonight." Scott tells Stiles, as they're walking towards Stiles' Jeep. "I'm gonna ride with Kira."

"Okay, I'll meet you there soon." Stiles says, and they part ways.

"Wait up, Stiles!" He hears Lydia say behind him, and his heart stops. He prayed to God that her boyfriend wasn't with her, as he turned around.

"Hey, Lydia." He says, unenthusiastically.

"Stiles, this is Alex." She smiles, breathing heavily from running. God, he even looked better up close, Stiles thought. "Alex, this is my friend Stiles that I was telling you about."

"Oh, hey dude! Nice to meet you." He says, holding his hand out for Stiles to shake.

"Um, hi." Stiles says, and nods his head. He shakes his hand, and tries really, really hard not to make a face, because this guy is about to break his hand. He doesn't even mean to, he's just that strong.

"I was thinking we could all hang out sometime. So you guys can get to know Alex better." Lydia says, staring at Stiles.

"Oh, yeah. We were all going to Scott's tonight. You two can come if you want." He gulps. The minute he said it, he regretted it. He was going to Scott's to forget about Lydia. Now her and her boyfriend were going to be there, right in his face, all night.

"Really? That sounds great." Lydia smiles, biting her lip. "Okay, well I'll see you there, then."

"Okay. See you." He says back, as Lydia is walking away. Alex is standing in place, smiling at a squirrel playing in the grass.

"Alex come on." Lydia snaps, and then smiles at Stiles. He got in his Jeep and groaned, before finally driving back to his house.


	4. Jealousy

"I'm telling you, Scott, he's a complete airhead! He barely said a word. He just stood there, smiling dumbly. It was ridiculous." Stiles says, sitting on a counter in Scott's kitchen, chewing on a pizza crust.

Stiles had driven back to his house and gotten clothes, and as he was getting in his Jeep, Scott called to ask if he'd pick up a pizza. So he did. That's also when he informed him on his accidental invite to Lydia.

"Maybe he isn't as bad as you think. You're sort of biased since you're in love with her and everything." Scott smiles, shrugging his shoulders and putting his arm around Kira. Stiles rolled his eyes and shoved the rest of the pizza crust in his mouth.

They were the only three there at the moment; Liam, Lydia, and Alex hadn't shown up yet.

"God, Stiles, I still can't believe you invited them. The whole point of tonight was to get away from them." Scott laughs, eating a piece of pizza too.

"Come on, Scott, you know how I am. It was a heat of the moment kind of thing! I was completely freaking out; I didn't know what else to do." He says, putting his face in his hands.

"It's fine. Maybe they won't stay long, and then just us can hang out." Scott laughs, and then they hear a knock on the door.

"I'm not ready. I'm really not ready yet." Stiles says, jumping down from the counter.

"Maybe it's Liam. I'll get it." Kira says softly, and opens the door. But it was Lydia. And Alex.

Lydia introduced them to Alex, and then Liam walked in, and she introduced him, too.

They all sat around the table and talked for a while, and ate pizza. Every time Stiles would glance at Lydia, she would quickly turn away and look at Alex instead. Was she mad at him for yesterday? But she didn't seem mad. If he wasn't mistaken, it looked like she was looking towards him to see what his reaction was when Alex talked. But that didn't make any sense.

"Yeah, Alex is part of the football team. Quarterback." Lydia smiles, and glances at Stiles.

"Nice." Stiles nods his head boredly. And that led to Alex talking for twenty minutes about football, which no one but himself cared about, and that Lydia only pretended to.

At one point, they started making out. Stiles got up and 'went to the bathroom' because it was too hard to watch. She may not like him back, but this was just torture. Did she really want to hurt him?

He laid on Scott's bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"Are you okay?" Kira asks, standing in the doorway. He sits up and looks at her.

"Yeah. I mean...I guess so. Depends on what your definition of 'fine' is." He replies, and falls back into the bed.

"Come on, Stiles. It'll be okay." She says, sitting beside him.

"I know, it's just...I don't know if it's just me being paranoid, but it seems like she's purposefully trying to hurt me or something. I don't know." He sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I don't think that's it, Stiles." She says, biting her lip.

"What is it then? I don't get it." He whines.

"I think...I think she's trying to make you jealous." She smiles slightly, and shrugs her shoulders.

"Wait...what?" He asks, sitting up abruptly.

"I may be wrong, so don't hold me to it, but I was watching her. She would just stare at you; see how you reacted. I don't know, Stiles." She says, tilting her head.

"No way. But she turned me down, you know? I don't get it! I don't understand why she would do that." Stiles says, putting his face in his hands.

"I don't either. I also don't understand _why_ she likes him. He's nice and all, but he really is an airhead; you were right. It doesn't seem like her type at all, you know? She's so smart. You'd think she would date someone who talked about something a little more interesting than football all the time." Kira says, expressing his thoughts exactly.

"Right?! I knew I wasn't just being paranoid. What should I do about all of this?" He replies, and lets out a sigh of relief.

"Maybe you should ask her about all of it. She said they had to leave soon...just try and get her alone." Kira says, patting his back to give him motivation.

"I've humiliated myself enough, Kira. Seriously. I don't know if I can do that again." He says, running his fingers through his hair with frustration.

"Yes you can, Stiles! Woman up! You can do it. Really." She smiles shyly. "You did it the first time, you can do it again. We have faith in you."

"Okay. I'll try. Thank you." He says, gulping. He feels his palms start to sweat from nervousness.

"No problem. Good luck." She smiles encouragingly, and walks out.

He breathed in and out deeply and quickly, and then stood up. He was going to talk to Lydia. Again.


	5. The Kiss

"Hey Lydia, can I talk to you for a sec upstairs maybe?" Stiles asks, shoving his hands in his pockets. Everyone was staring at him, which made him even more nervous; if that was even humanly possible.

"Um...I guess." She says, biting her lip, and raising her eyebrow. Everyone was silent as she turned and kissed Alex. It was a beat too long, making it awkward. Well, even more awkward than it was before. Eventually she pulled away, and trudged upstairs behind Stiles.

His palms were sweating like crazy as he sat down on the edge of Scott's bed. He thought he might would pass out from anxiousness. She sat down beside him, looking concerned.

"Is something wrong, Stiles? You look pale." She says, pressing the back of her hand to his forehead. That definitely didn't help him calm down at all.

"Lydia," He sighs, grabbing her wrist, and setting it down on the bed. "don't pretend like you don't know what this is about."

"Stiles...I really don't. What are you talking about?" She lets out a small laugh, looking completely confused.

"Lydia come on. I feel like...I feel like I've been slowly dying all day watching you and Alex." He says, biting the inside of his cheek.

"He's my boyfriend, Stiles. I thought you'd want to meet him since you're my friend." She says, crossing her arms.

"I understand that. I really do. But just last night, I told you that I...I told you how I felt about you. It's not fair of you to just make out with him right in front of me. Did I make you mad yesterday? If so, I didn't mean to. But I don't deserve this, Lydia. No one on earth deserves it, really. It freakin' sucks." He says, taking in a huge breath. She looked down, ashamed.

"Sorry." She bites her lip again.

"It's not...don't be sorry, okay? I just don't understand. Why would you want to hurt me like that, Lydia?" He asks, feeling pain in his chest.

"I didn't mean to hurt you." She says quietly, looking down at the blanket.

"Just be honest with me. This is hard enough already." He says, his heartbeat picking up. "I just need closure on this, so I can maybe get over you sometime in the future."

"I did it on purpose, okay? Whatever, it doesn't matter." She says, gulping and standing up.

"Stop, Lydia." He says, grabbing her wrist, and standing up too. "Please don't go. I want to talk to you."

"Stiles." She whispers, her eyes glancing up to meet his. They were glassy, and he knew she was trying to hold back tears to look strong. The atmosphere had changed drastically in seconds, and they both could feel it. It went from their weird banter-like conversation, to calm and light and _easy_.

The next thing he knew, they were kissing. Well _she_ was kissing _him_. Her lips were soft and gentle against his, and his stomach felt like he had just fallen off a fifty story building. Her lips tasted like vanilla, and his senses were overcome with her taste and smell and touch, and he could barely think. Her lips were warm and gentle, as they barely moved against his. She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, and that's when he really, really realized what was happening. He turned his head and sighed, as her lips hit his cheek. She immediately pulled her arms away, and put them behind her back.

"We can't, Lydia." He says, running his hands through his hair.

"What the hell?! I thought this was what you wanted." She says, gulping.

"Not like this! You told me you didn't have feelings for me. And your boyfriend is in the other room! I'm not that kind of guy. You aren't that kind of girl, either." He says, even though it was the hardest thing he had to do. He could have kissed her for hours.

"Whatever, okay? I'm leaving. This is all stupid." She snaps, and hurriedly walks out the door. He falls back on the bed, feeling ten times worse than he did before.

A few minutes later, Kira, Scott, and Liam walked in. He groaned and put a pillow over his head, embarrassed.

"Stiles, what happened?" Kira asks softly, sitting down beside him. He wanted to just cry.

"I'm never going to school again." Stiles whines into the pillow, and Kira plucks the pillow away.

"Hey!" He says, grabbing for it, but she tossed it to Scott across the room.

"Just tell us what happened. Maybe we can help, Stiles. Don't shut us out." Kira says, looking sad for him. He sat up, and looked at all three of them. Finally he explained everything that happened, leading up to Lydia's apparent 'mad dash' out the door, as Liam told Stiles.

"Oh." Kira says, looking at the floor.

"Oh? Kira, I need more than that. My whole life is potentially ruined at this point." Stiles says, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Dramatic..." Liam whispers, and Stiles makes a face at him, quickly shutting him up.

"She's probably confused, Stiles." Scott says, patting him on the back.

"Yeah, I was thinking that too. You need to give her space to realize how she feels about you. She may be rethinking what she told you last night. Think if you were in her situation, you know? Just give her time." Kira says, reaching behind Stiles to hold Scott's hand.

"Okay. That's fine." He gulps, feeling sick to his stomach. "Anything. Even if she just wants to be friends, it sucks, but at least it's something. I can't take all of this confusing stuff."

"I know. It's not fair to you, man." Scott says, putting his arm around him. "It'll get better soon. And we're all here for you."

"Pity party for Stiles. Ridiculous." Liam rolls his eyes, smiling slightly. Stiles at least felt a little better knowing at least one small part of his life would never change. He knew Liam wasn't one to express his feelings openly like he and Scott do, but this was his way of showing he really does care.

"You'll understand when you get older, Liam." Stiles says, trying not to laugh. Liam smiles as he shakes his head, and looks down at the floor.

"Come on. Let's go watch a movie or something." Scott says, standing up.

"Yeah. Sounds good." Stiles says, trailing behind Scott and Kira as they descended the stairs.


	6. A Plan

It has now officially been a week and three days since Stiles has talked to Lydia. They would glance at each other during school, and he would smile at her apologetically, hoping that she would come talk to him. But she would only turn away. Then there were special occasions when she would roll her eyes, and then turn away.

He gave her space like Kira recommended, but it wasn't helping, and he missed her like crazy. He should have known she was too stubborn to talk to him first.

"I guess you're the one who should do it first. You've given her plenty of time." Kira says, shrugging her shoulders. "I thought she'd give in by now."

"Lydia will never give in. We should have known that." Stiles says, and Scott agrees. "I'll go to her house after school tomorrow. Hopefully Alex won't be there."

"She kissed you, Stiles. That has to mean something. She wouldn't have done something like that if she didn't have at least some feelings for you." Kira replies, as her and Scott walk towards Stiles' front door.

"I don't want to get my hopes up though, you know? And they must not be very strong because she went without talking to me for two weeks and it's not affecting her at all." Stiles sighs, running his tongue along the jags of his teeth.

"Stop being such a downer! Just because she doesn't show it doesn't mean she's not upset about it. We all know how Lydia is. You especially." Scott says, smiling slightly.

"I know. I just don't get why she's being like this. I wish she'd say something." Stiles replies, taking in a long breath.

"You know she's too hard-headed to talk to you first, Stiles. It was a long shot to wait like that, but that doesn't mean things won't work out. You just have to try, man." Scott says, patting him on the back.

"Yeah, yeah." Stiles laughs, and hangs his head low.

"Look man, we need to go. Her mom wants her home by eleven. See you tomorrow at school?" Scott asks, and Stiles nods.

"Mhmm. See ya. Bye, Kira." Stiles says, smiling.

"Bye." She says, and they leave. He didn't know what was going to happen tomorrow, but he felt at ease that it would all be over after this talk. Whether it went well, or even if it went horrible, it was better than this not-knowing-what's-going-on situation.


	7. Another Confession

"Call me as soon as you get home, okay? Even _I_ couldn't sleep last night." Scott laughs, walking alongside Stiles as they push through the doors of the school, on their way to the parking lot.

Lydia didn't even come to school today. It was as if she _knew_ that today was the day, and she needed to prepare herself before Stiles came marching in there telling her how he felt for the third time in the past two weeks.

But, Stiles got curious, and decided to ask Kira to text her and ask why she was absent. Lydia told Kira that her and her dad were going to spend the day together since he was visiting. Stiles knew that was a lie. She couldn't stand her dad.

"I was up all friggin' night thinking about all of the horrible things that could happen. It was miserable. But I'll call you after everything. Definitely." Stiles laughs, huffing sleepily and running his fingers through his hair nervously.

"Good. Me and Kira already planned that she'd come over and we would watch a movie while we waited for your call. We're excited." Scott laughs, patting Stiles on the back supportively as they reach his Jeep.

"Jesus, Scott." Stiles laughs, shaking his head. "It could just be a bust. A huge let down."

"Then we'll be there to support you! Listen, Stiles, I've been waiting for this since third grade, too. I want you to be happy." He says, making Stiles smile.

"You'd think _you_ were the one in love, not me." Stiles laughs, tossing his backpack in the backseat of his Jeep.

"Good luck, man. I know this is the day that something big happens. We'll be waiting by the phone." Scott gives him a small smile, and then hugs him.

"Thanks, man. I can do this." He says, shaking his body out, and clearing his head. They said their goodbyes, and Stiles pulled out of the parking lot, and headed to Lydia's house.

He was terrified, of course, but also a little bit excited. He had a good feeling for some reason, and thinking about the fact that Kira and Scott were going to be anxiously waiting by the phone made him smile.

He finally pulled up to her house, and his heart was beating like crazy. The first night he confessed his love should have been the scariest and most exciting, but this was different for some reason. This felt more real than that moment.

He fixed his hair in the mirror of his Jeep and gulped, and then stepped out and walked to her door. He bit the inside of his cheek as he got closer; his legs feeling like spaghetti. He got to the door, and hesitated, before pressing the doorbell. His hand was shaking, as he turned and picked a few purple flowers from the ground hurriedly.

He didn't hear anything. Her house was big, so he decided to wait. Still nothing. He rang the doorbell again, and was starting to feel uneasy. Then he heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and his heartbeat picked up again.

"Go away. I can't talk to you right now. I never want to again, actually." She said, obviously upset. His heart sank. She was still mad at him for the other day. He felt sick to his stomach, like he was going to throw up. "Go!"

"Lydia, I-" He tries to say, but his voice cracks before he can get out anything else. He hesitates for a second, before turning around and walking back to his Jeep. His heart was crushed into a million pieces, and he could barely breathe.

"Stiles?" She asks, calmer now.

"Yeah?" He says, too scared he would cry if he turned around and faced her.

"I didn't know it was you. I thought it was...It wasn't about you. I'm sorry I was being so harsh. I thought it was someone else." She says, and he turns around. She smiled weakly at him, obviously feeling bad.

Her hair was flowing down her waist, and she was biting her lip. She was wearing a T-shirt and sweats, and he was convinced she got more and more beautiful every time he saw her. He was breathless, as much of a cliche that is.

"It's fine...I just..." he says, trying to gather all of his thoughts. He forgot how hard of a task that was when he was looking at her.

"Come inside." She says, giving a small smile that showed her dimples. He was so in love with her that it drove him crazy.

He walked up the steps, and followed her inside. They were silent for a while as she made tea, but it wasn't awkward. It was comfortable.

"Let's go to my room." She said, handing him a mug with a tea bag hanging off the side. He noticed that her eyes were puffy, but he didn't say anything.

They both sat beside each other on her bed.

"I miss you." She smiles, knocking her elbow against his. "This is stupid."

"I know. I miss you too." He laughs, setting his tea down on her nightstand. He didn't even like tea, but now didn't seem like the right time to mention that.

"So why are you here?" She asks, watching him. He kept eye contact for as long as he could, but his anxiety always got the better of him, and he had to look away.

"Um, I just wanted to talk to you about the other day. I don't want to leave things like that. I'm sorry about all of it." He tells her.

"Me too." She laughs, shaking her head. He had so many other things he had come here to say, but he's lost the confidence already.

"Are you okay?" He asks quietly, not wanting to upset her again.

"Uh...yeah." She gulps, shaking her head. "I'm fine."

"I know you've been crying, Lydia. I just want to know you're okay. Is it your dad? Is it anything serious?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm fine now." She smiles weakly, looking down at her hands. Then she changed the subject. "So is there something you wanted to say?"

"Um..." He says, too afraid. He imagined Scott and Kira anxiously waiting by the phone, and their disappointed voices when he would tell them he was too chicken to say anything. "Why did you kiss me?"

"God, Stiles." She says, shaking her head. "If you have to know, Alex and I had fought earlier that day and I was just vulnerable and angry. It was a huge mistake. Honestly."

"You looked pretty fine to me. You were making out right in front of me. I'm tired of this, Lydia. It's exhausting. Kira said it looked like you were trying to make me jealous. Is that true?" He asks quietly, nervously.

" _What?!_ No, of course not!" She says, getting defensive. She got off the bed, and stood up.

"Just tell me how you feel, because I'm not good at this guessing game! I'm going insane thinking about you every day and every night. Every second of the day, actually. Listen, Lydia, if you like me, that's great. Amazing, to be honest. But if you don't, I'll find a way to deal with it. I'm not trying to pressure you into saying yes or no; I don't want that. I just need to know how you really feel. If you say you don't have feelings for me, then I won't bother you about this ever again." He says, his voice close to giving out as he stood up and looked down at her. "I just need to know. I have to know."

She looked away, and didn't answer. That didn't give him a good feeling.

"Did you feel anything when we kissed? Just say something. Anything." He begs, but it was like his words were going straight past her.

Something took over him, and a burst of bravery spread through him. He gently slid his fingers to the back of her neck, and his thumb brushed against her lips, before he slowly leaned down and kissed her. He gave her plenty of time to stop him, but she didn't take the chance. He was kissing Lydia.

It was hesitant and gentle; waiting to see if she wanted this or not. His hands were cupping her small face, but she was completely frozen in place.

Not only was she entirely still, but then he remembered something that he wished he hadn't. He had completely forgotten about Alex.

"Oh my god." He pulls away, and runs his fingers through his hair. She still stood there, like a statue. "I'm so, so sorry. I'm so _stupid_."

"I can't believe that just happened." She whispered, touching her lips like she was checking to see if it was real or not.

"I have to go. I'm sorry, Lydia. I won't say anything about you and me ever again." He says, grabbing his phone and walking downstairs.

"Stiles!" She says, trying to follow him, but he shut the door and ran to his jeep before she could reach him. He peeled out of her parking lot, and headed to his house. He dialed Scott's number; ready to give him the horrible news.

It would've been one thing if she had just said that she didn't like him that way, because he expected that. But this was so much worse.

* * *

"Scott, seriously. She stood there like a statue while I ran out. It was horrible. She has a freaking boyfriend and I did that. I'm such an idiot." Stiles says into the phone, on speaker to Kira and Scott as he drove home.

"Oh, Stiles, I meant to tell you! Her and Alex broke up. That's probably what she was upset about earlier." Scott says, and Stiles just about wrecks.

"What?! Jesus, Scott, that would have been nice information to know! I stopped kissing her because of her boyfriend!" Stiles says, his heart racing.

"I'm sorry, I blanked! Kira was texting Stephanie Denton and she told her about it. We thought it was a rumor at first, but we checked around and it's true." Scott says hurriedly.

"Yeah, apparently Alex cheated on her with multiple girls, Stiles. No wonder she's hurt." Kira says, and Stiles starts breathing heavily.

"No way." He gulps, shaking his head. "Poor Lydia. Why didn't she tell me?"

"You didn't give her a chance! You probably bolted before she could." Scott says, and Stiles realizes that was true. She yelled his name while he was running out, and that was probably what she was going to tell him. He felt like a complete asshole now.

"Oh God. Oh God." He says, his hands shaking furiously.

"Are you almost here?" Scott asks, and Stiles sees Scott's mailbox in his headlights. Acting on an impulse, he swerves in the road, making a complete U-turn.

"I have to go back. I'll call you later."


	8. Completely Unexpected

He ran up her driveway, and noticed the purple flowers that he had dropped when she yelled through the door earlier. The sunset had the same color as them.

He banged on the door, and ran his hands through his hair. His hands were shaking, and he was sweating profusely. He desperately needed to talk to her, and fix everything.

"Stiles." She said quietly as she answered the door. He could tell that she had been crying even more since he left.

"Lydia. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry about Alex, and everything else I just did." He says, walking towards her and wrapping his arms around her in a hug. She sobbed against his chest, gripping at his shirt.

This had nothing to with what they talked about earlier. This was a friend being there for another friend. He didn't care about being in love or kissing her right now; he just wanted to make her feel better.

"I'm an idiot. I was making it all about me and you were hurting. I'm so freaking sorry, Lydia. I really am." He whispers into her hair, and closes his eyes. When she was hurting, so was he.

"It's okay. It's fine." She chokes, holding him even tighter.

Probably five whole minutes went by as they held each other. Eventually she pulled away, and looked up at him and laughed as she wiped her eyes. All around them were swollen from tears.

"I wanted to tell you, Stiles. It just hurt too bad. It was embarrassing." She says as she sits down on the steps, watching the sunset.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Lydia; the guy's a jerk. What happened? If you don't mind me asking." He says, watching her face as she watched the sunset. Not even a sunset like this could take his eyes away from something as beautiful as Lydia.

"Yesterday I walked in on him sleeping with another girl. He told her he was single; she had no idea he had a girlfriend. Then it came out that he had been sleeping with two more girls. They didn't know either, but when they found out, they came and told me." She says, biting her quivering lip.

"What a dick. You were way too good for him." He says, holding her hand. "Seriously. Not to be intrusive, but I'm pretty sure he had a brain the size of a birds. I don't...I didn't understand why you liked him."

"I _didn't_ even like him." She laughs, shaking her head. She looks up at him, and his heart races.

"What do you mean? You were dating him." He says, confused.

"I think I like someone else." She says, looking down at their intertwined hands.

"Oh." He gulps, his heart sinking. It took her next words for him to realize that she was talking about him.

"You were right; I was trying to make you jealous. Although, it was subconsciously. I told you I didn't like you because I was so confused, Stiles. I didn't know how I felt about you." She gulps, and he can tell she's nervous. Lydia was nervous because of him. "It wasn't fair of me to put you through that, but I wasn't meaning to. When you kissed me, that's when I knew. I was frozen because I couldn't believe it. It was so clear how I felt about you right then."

"Really?" He asks, and she squeezes his shaking hand to comfort him. His eyes were going slightly blurry, and he had never experienced something so surreal in his entire life. Not even seeing his best friend turn into a werewolf was this unbelievable.

"Yeah." She laughs, as if she can't believe it herself, either. "I only dated him to make you jealous, because I was jealous of you and Malia. I didn't realize it was jealousy though. I just felt sick to my stomach and annoyed when I saw you two together. I kissed Alex so much to make you jealous too. It wasn't right, I know, but I couldn't help it. I was frustrated and I didn't know why. I didn't even really care about him cheating on me. He's a huge jerk, but I only cared that I made a huge mistake turning you down over _him_."

She turned to look at him, ashamed, and he kissed her. There was something different now. She wasn't hesitant or regretful, she just _wanted_ to. She wanted to be with him.

She kissed him gently, and then pulled away and bit her lip. They looked at each other, and then she tugged him to her and hugged him tightly.

"I know I sound ridiculous, but I really like you, Stiles. I usually date people just to date people, but I really, really like you. You actually make me nervous, you know that?" She laughs, pulling away to look at his face. He gulped and smiled, and then kissed her again.

"You have no idea...how I feel right now. So happy." He laughs, and presses his forehead against hers.

"Me too." She smiles, and kisses him one more time, before laying her head on his chest.

"I've been waiting so long for this, Lydia. This is so weird." He gulps, and she holds his hand. He wasn't sure if this meant they were boyfriend or girlfriend or not, and he was too scared to ask. She was so cool about this kind of thing, but he was the complete opposite of that.

"Yeah." She laughs, snuggling up to him. "But a good weird."


	9. Goodnight Kiss

Eventually it got dark outside, and they went inside and sat on the couch. It was a little awkward at this point. What exactly was supposed to happen now? It kind of just fell together with Malia; he didn't really have to think about it much. But this he had thought about entirely too much. To the point where he had imagined every single thing that could go wrong, which put horrible ideas in his head.

"So…." He laughs, trying to look at her, but eventually turning his eyes away. He hated himself for that.

"I guess you should ask me out on a date," She smiles as she looks at him. "Since you're my boyfriend and everything."

"Boyfriend?" He asks, a stupid boyish-grin covering his face.

"Of course." She laughs, shaking her head. "Did you think we weren't after all of that?"

"I mean I hoped we were, but it was never clear. I didn't want to say it if you didn't feel the same way about it." He says, nervously laughing. She didn't reply, so he turned to look at her, confused.

As soon as he turned, she pressed her lips against his, and tackled him against the couch. He had to remind himself to breathe, because Lydia's lips were on his, and her body was pressed against him, and her hands were sliding under his shirt. He was stiff for a minute, but then he embraced it. He put his arms around her waist, and flipped them around so he was on top. She moaned against his mouth, which made something in his stomach stir.

He had dreamed, daydreamed, and prayed for this moment for practically as long as he can remember. The thoughts of kissing Lydia always occurred during class, and also kept him up at night; making the bags under his eyes dark from sleep loss. They weren't just thoughts of kissing her, really, or the normal 'sex daydream' that teenage boys had in movies about the most popular girl in school. He thought about holding her hand, taking her on dates, and even just picking her up from school in the morning and getting to kiss her. He was completely in love with her.

"Stiles, take your shirt off." She breathed out, kissing his neck. He absentmindedly reached down to pull it off, but instead he stopped everything, and pulled away.

"I'm sorry, Lydia. I can't do this right now." He says, wanting to punch himself in the face. He even surprised himself by pulling away like that.

"What?! Why not?" She asks, both of them still breathing heavily.

"We just got together like twenty minutes ago. Literally. I'm not ready yet, I think." He says, getting mad at himself. Why was he saying this?! He's wanted this for so long.

"What are you, a girl?!" She exclaims, throwing her hands in the air.

"That's incredibly misogynistic, Lydia!" He says, shocked she'd say that.

"I know. Just forget I said it." She sighs, looking down at her hands. "I'm sorry I went overboard like that. It's just...that's all I've ever known. Relationships and dating don't usually coincide for me, you know? It's just sex. That's all I'm used to, I guess. It makes me feel wanted."

"It's okay, really. I just need you to know that you don't have to have sex with me to be wanted. I've wanted you for such a long time, Lydia, and it has nothing to do with sex. Sex too, but not just sex." He laughs, and she smiles brightly, and her cheeks flush.

"Thanks, Stiles. You always know how to make me feel better." She shakes her head, slightly embarrassed. He thought it was so cute.

"I don't want to, but I need to go. It's getting late, and we have school tomorrow. Do you want me to, um, pick you up on my way?" He stood up, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah. That sounds great." She smiles, and bites her lip. He smiled, and looked down at the floor.

"I'll walk you out." She says, and intertwines their fingers as they walk. They go outside to his Jeep, and she leans against the door, smiling up at him.

"See you tomorrow." She says, and he wants to kiss her really, really badly. He wished he could just get over his anxiety sometimes.

"Yeah. See you tomorrow." He laughs, and climbs into his Jeep. "Bye."

"Bye, Stiles." She smiles, but looks a little disappointed. He stopped about halfway through backing up her driveway, and put his Jeep in park. He ran up to her, grabbed her face, and kissed her. She smiled against his lips, and put her arms around his neck.

"Thank God," She laughed, and kissed him one more time.

"I'm taking you on a date tomorrow night." He smiles, and brushes a strand of hair from her face.

"Commanding. I like it." She narrows her eyes, and bites her lip sexily.

"I'll tell you details tomorrow morning." He laughs, shaking his head. "Goodnight, Lydia." He says, smiling stupidly as he walked backwards towards his Jeep.

"Goodnight, Stiles." She rolled her eyes, laughing.

On his way home he looked at his phone, and saw that he had almost twenty missed calls, and fourteen missed texts from Kira and Scott. He called them and told them everything that had happened; his mouth hurt from having a huge smile plastered to his face the whole time. He couldn't believe it.

After he hung up the phone and was turning in his driveway, he realized that he had never seen Lydia smile as much as she had tonight. He hoped that all of this would never die down for her, because it sure as hell never had for him. And it never will.


	10. School

"Good morning, Stiles." Lydia smiles, as she locks her front door and walks beside him. They both get in the car, and still, it's a little awkward. He turns his Jeep on, and they make their way to school.

"How did you sleep?" He asks, trying to make easy conversation.

"Fine, I guess." She sighs, and looks out the window. "You?"

"Not very well. I was too excited to see you again." He says, glancing over at her and hoping she wasn't creeped out by that comment; which he had regretted immediately after uttering. She smiled, and looked down at the floor. She looked uneasy, though, he noted.

"So I thought we could, um, go have dinner and watch a movie tonight?" He asked, gripping harder at the steering wheel. He was really scared that maybe she had gotten over him already, and realized yesterday was a mistake. That terrified him.

"Of course! What time?" She asks, smiling brightly, which made him more excited than he'd ever admit out loud.

"I guess six? Is that fine with you?" He asks, and he couldn't get the smile off of his face, as much as he tried.

"Yeah. Sounds great." She laughs, looking over at him.

They pulled up at the school, and he was so nervous and excited at the same time. He wondered what people were going to say when they saw him and Lydia together. Probably nothing good. His heart was pounding.

He reached for her hand as they started walking in the parking lot, but she pulled away, and jerked him behind a car; completely invisible to the other students walking to the school entrance.

"Are you alright?" He asks, noticing the panicked look on her face. She bit her lip and sighed.

"I just...I don't think we should tell anyone about us yet. I think it would be best that way." She says, not being able to look in his eyes.

"Lydia...why?" He asks, feeling sick to his stomach. He gulped, and pulled away from her. "Is it because…I mean, I know they'll probably give you a hard time for dating me. I'm sorry."

"No, Stiles, that's not it at all. It's just not a good idea right now. With the rumors about Alex and I, it's just bad timing. Not right now, okay?" She says, obviously feeling sorry for him.

"It's okay. I understand." He nods, and pulls on the strap of his backpack, looking down at the ground.

All he wanted was to be able to hug and kiss her in front of people. Not so he could show her off at all, of course, but he had always felt like she was embarrassed of him, even when they were friends. She would roll her eyes when he told a joke, and bicker with him like she was trying to hurt his feelings or something. He had hoped that would change and she would prove that theory wrong today at school, but it was clear that that wouldn't happen any time soon. He just wanted her to show him that she could be with him in public and not be embarrassed.

"I'll see you in English then?" She asks, smiling.

"Yeah." He nods, giving her his best smile. He turns to leave, but she grabs his shirt, and not only presses her body to his, but her lips too. She kissed him long and deep, and by the time she pulled away, he had already forgotten what his name was.

"Bye." She smiles and leaves quickly, as if she hadn't just changed his life forever. He pressed his forehead against some strangers car, smiling stupidly.

* * *

"Maybe it's exactly what she says it is, Stiles." Kira insists, after he explained to her and Scott what had happened earlier that day.

"It probably is. Maybe you're just looking into it too much, you know?" Scott tells him.

His next class was English, and he was completely nervous. He knew he shouldn't sit beside her or talk to her, and he wasn't sure if he should even _look_ at her. He was miserable, but he kept thinking about that kiss, and that at least cheered him up _some_.

"I do tend to do that. I hope that's all it is." He sighs, and then the bell rings. Like clockwork, Scott and Kira kiss and say their goodbyes, and then Stiles and Kira head to class together.

They didn't talk, mostly because Kira knew that Stiles wasn't really feeling like it. He admired that about her; she was quiet, and she was great at picking up signals like that. She could tell what everyone was feeling, because she watched.

He sat down in his seat behind Lydia, but she didn't turn around. Either she hadn't seen him come in, or she was taking this whole 'not letting anyone know they're dating' thing really seriously.

"So I heard a rumor that you and Stiles Stilinski were making out in the parking lot. Is that true?" The girl beside Lydia, Dana Webber, asked her. She had whispered his name, but he was sitting in the chair right behind them. He could have heard them even if he _wasn't_ eavesdropping.

"Stiles? God, no." Lydia laughs, and shakes her head. He gulps, and Kira's eyes widen.

"Okay, good. I didn't think so." Dana laughed, and continued to scribble on her notebook paper. Kira put her hand on Stiles arm, and she gave him an apologetic look. He nodded at her and gulped, unable to think or feel. He was numb.

"Dana!" One of her friends said, coming in the door. She turned and smiled at whoever it was, and then her eyes saw Stiles. Her smile slowly dropped, and now she looked like a deer caught in headlights. "I didn't mean to..."

"What?" Lydia laughs, and turns to look at what she was looking at. "Oh."

"I guess the date is off." He tried to keep his voice even, feeling a huge lump in his throat. He grabbed his backpack, and ran out of the school as fast as he could, and drove home.

His suspicions had officially been confirmed. Maybe she did like him, but not enough to not care about what people would say if she had been dating him. He loved Lydia more than anything else in the world, but maybe it wasn't worth it. How could he be with someone who was embarrassed to be with him?


	11. Unwanted Visit

He had gone home and crawled under his blanket. He couldn't sleep of course, but being away from everyone was nice. It allowed him to suffer in peace, which was ideal.

He still couldn't believe Lydia had done that. She obviously didn't know he was there, which made it even worse that she would say it behind his back. This definitely wasn't what he expected dating Lydia would be like. His heart was broken already, and it hadn't even been a whole day yet.

He had heard his phone go off probably a million times, and he knew it was all from Scott. He was too upset to text or call anyone right now, though.

He heard the door open downstairs, and groaned. A few minutes later, his bedroom door squeaked open.

"Scott, I can't talk about it right now." Stiles sighs, his voice muffled from the blanket.

"It's not Scott." He hears Lydia say in a feeble voice. He waits a few beats, slightly shocked.

"Go away, Lydia." He tried to sound harsh, but it came out a lot weaker than he wanted it to.

"I can't. Not until I apologize for being so stupid earlier." She sighed, and crawled into bed next to him. He wanted to be mad at her, but his nervousness made him forget all about that.

"How'd you even get in? I locked the door." He said, still under the comforter.

She pulled the blanket off of him, and he peeked up at her with one eye.

"Scott gave me the key." She said, biting the inside of her cheek.

"Hmph." He rolled his eyes.

"Stiles." She said, cuddling up to him. She rubbed her hand up his arm, and he gulped. "I'm so sorry."

She waited a few seconds, and then kissed him. It was soft and slow, and it only took a few seconds for him to reciprocate. She whimpered against his lips, and set her small hand on his face.

"No! Get away from me," He says, rolling off the bed and clumsily standing up. "You're - God, you're like a friggin' wizard or something."

"Stiles, I just want you to forgive me." She begs, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I can't! You can't just come in here and think you can be sweet and kiss me, and that I'll just automatically forgive you! You….God, Lydia, you humiliated me." He gulps, putting his face in his hands.

"I'm sorry. It was dumb, Stiles, I felt horrible as soon as you left." She says, biting her lip.

"Oh, I get it. You didn't feel bad for saying it, only that I heard it." He nods, as if he finally understood.

"No! That's not it at all." She says, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "Please."

"Listen, Lydia. I thought...I thought this stupid high school hierarchy was in the past. After all we've been through, and you said that? I may not be popular still, but I didn't think that mattered to you anymore." He shook his head, and sighed.

"It doesn't! It doesn't, Stiles. I was being completely stupid! I regret it so much. Please," She pleaded, tears falling from her eyes.

"You broke my heart, Lydia." He gulped, trying really, really hard not to cry himself. Her face fell. She knew what she had done, and she knew it would be hard to forgive.

"I'm sorry." She says, with her lip quivering.

"The worst part of it all, is the fact that you wouldn't have felt bad for doing it if I hadn't overheard." He replies quietly.

"Yes I would! I would, Stiles, you have to believe me. I don't want to ruin the only good relationship I've ever had. Please." She begged, which was breaking his heart even more.

"Just let me think about it all for a while, okay? I just need some time." He sighs, entirely exhausted from this tragic day.

"Yeah. Yeah, I understand." She nods, and wipes tears from her face as she stands up. He couldn't look at her. He couldn't see her cry, because he knew that if he did, he would forgive her. He would tell her everything was okay, even though it wasn't. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. See ya, Lyd." He gulps, and he can feel her hesitating by the door. Eventually, after a few seconds of silence, she leaves. He climbs back into bed, and when he hears the door shut downstairs, he groans really, really loudly.

He lay there for a while, staring up at the ceiling. A long time passed, before he decided that he didn't want to be home alone after all. He picked up his phone, and dialed a phone number.

"Scott? Yeah. Yeah, I guess. Will you come over? Okay, good. Oh, and it's your turn to bring pizza this time."


	12. Girls Night

"Bro." Scott sighed, setting the pizza at the end of the bed. He climbed into bed next to Stiles, and propped his chin up on his hand, staring at him.

"Hi, Scott." He said, burying his face in his pillow.

"No! No being pitiful. Tell me what happened. Kira told me about everything at school, but I know Lydia was over here." He says, patting Stiles' back.

"Yeah, because you gave her the key to my house." Stiles groaned.

"She cornered me! Plus I wanted you two to work things out anyway. Sue me." He laughs, and Stiles finally smiles.

"Yeah, well that wasn't exactly what happened. She came and apologized, but I told her I needed a while to think about it. It went pretty bad." Stiles said, leaving out the pointless details.

"I'm sorry, dude. What do you think you're gonna do?" Scott asks, listening intently.

"No idea. I know I've loved her since I was a kid, but God...Scott, I've never felt so horrible over something so small. I'm just wondering if it's worth it, you know?"

"Are you kidding me?! Stiles, you have to snap out of this." Scott says, sitting up abruptly.

"Jesus, Scott!" Stiles says, surprised.

"Look, Stiles, I'm trying to be supportive, but you can't think every relationship is going to be perfect. I know what happened today may have been...a little worse than most couples deal with on their first day of dating, but it will get better. You just have to get through this rough spot at first. You need to consider the fact that Lydia has only dated really popular guys. She just needs to adjust to dating the best guy in the entire world." Scott smiles, and Stiles laughed.

"I don't know. I get what you mean, I really do. But she...she's embarrassed of me. She doesn't even like me enough, you know? It's humiliating. It makes me feel like shit." Stiles says, breathing in deeply.

"Yeah, I see your point. I'm so sorry, dude. Maybe you just need to tell her that you guys can't be together until she accepts you for you. You deserve that." Scott says, looking upset too. He was very empathetic, and Stiles knew that. "You're the best guy ever, Stiles. I think Lydia will come around. I know she loves you, and I know you love her more than anything else. When it comes to it, she'll choose you over her popularity. I know it."

"God, I hope so. I'm so freaking in love with her, Scott." He says, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I know, man. Trust me, I know. You've loved her since third grade. Just don't give up on her yet, alright? I know she'll come through." He laughs, ruffling Stiles' hair. "Now let's eat this pizza before it gets cold."

They ate the pizza while watching movies for the rest of the night. They talked some more about Lydia, and then Scott started talking about Kira, and how happy he was.

"I can tell. You're smiling all the time." Stiles laughs, and Scott smiles even bigger.

"Yeah. I love her." Scott says, sighing. "I'm glad we're doing this. I miss it."

"Miss what?" Stiles laughs. He already felt significantly better than earlier. He just needed a friend, and Scott was always there when he needed him most.

"You know, our 'girls nights'. We used to have them all the time but we don't anymore! It sucks! I forgot how happy they made me. We haven't gotten to spend time together like this in a while." Scott says, and that made Stiles happy.

He always felt like Scott forgot about him when he dated someone. He knew it wasn't true, of course, but they never got to spend much time together when he had dated Alison, or even Kira. It was especially limited when Stiles and Malia were dating, too. It just seemed like there wasn't much time for 'one-on-one with Scott and Stiles'.

"Girls night?" Stiles laughed, taking a sip of his soda. He pretty much knew what he was talking about, but he wanted to hear Scott's definition of it.

"Yeah! Guys nights are supposed to be drinking and partying and playing video games, but girls nights are having candy and talking about deep stuff and secrets you know? I love girls night with you!" Scott laughs, and so does Stiles.

"I love having girls night with you too, Scott. And I also miss this a lot. We should plan one night every week or two when we have to do this." Stiles says, munching on some chips.

"Yes! Definitely!" Scott says, grinning ear-to-ear.

"Great." Stiles laughed, feeling refreshed. He was happy to know that Scott - even though everything was going crazy in their lives - still wanted to hang out with him. "Now we should probably go to bed. It's almost one a.m. on a school night."

"Oh God, we're going to be so tired in the morning." Scott laughed, and then they went upstairs, climbed into Stiles' bed, and fell asleep.


	13. Lydia's Announcement

Scott was right. Neither of them could even open their eyes when Stiles' alarm clock went off the next morning. They were practically still asleep while they took showers and drove to school.

"Next time, let's agree to do this on a night when we _don't_ have to go to school the next day." Stiles groaned, pushing open the doors of the school.

"Definitely." Scott sighed, his eyes blinking slowly. The bell rung, and they said their goodbyes.

"See you later." Scott yawned, and they went their separate ways.

Stiles went into his history class first. He thought about Lydia, and everything that happened yesterday. He was half asleep through the whole class, but his nerves jumped when the bell rung, and he realized that he would have to see Lydia next period. What would he say to her? He decided to go straight to class instead of going to his locker, so he could talk to her before anyone else got there.

He made his way to English class, but he was the first in there. A few minutes later, more kids piled in, but no Lydia. Even when the bell rang, she still hadn't shown up. She must have skipped school again. It was a relief, but also a disappointment. He had wanted to see her.

Class went by annoyingly slow. Kira was in there, but she was actually paying attention, so Stiles had no one to talk to. He was bored, and tired, and ready to go home.

He was looking at the clock above the chalkboard intently; watching the next three minutes go by with each click of a hand.

Then something weird happened, making his heart speed up. Someone started banging on the classroom door. He couldn't see who it was, but he was sure it was just a teacher or something. He wrote the assignments from the chalk board down in his notebook, while the teacher answered the door. Then he heard Lydia's voice. He turned quickly, and saw Lydia arguing with the teacher about something. She was out of breath, he noticed.

"I just need to say one thing! Please. It'll only take a second." She begged, and the teacher rolled his eyes and turned his body so she could pass. Her eyes met Stiles' as she walked in, breathing heavily. Everyone was staring at her.

"Um, I have something to say." She gulped, and bit her lip nervously. He had never seen Lydia so on-edge about something. "God, this is harder than I thought."

"Lydia, are you okay?" Stiles whispered, but she just nodded. She found an empty chair, and stood on it, looking at the class. Her hands were shaking.

"Okay." She breathed in deeply, and licked her lips. "I just wanted to say...that I'm in love with Stiles Stilinski."

The whole room gasped, including Stiles and Kira. Everyone was staring at Stiles now, and he felt his face heating up.

"That rumor about us making out in the parking lot was true yesterday." Lydia laughed, looking down at the floor. She was smiling really big, and Stiles was starting to smile too after he got over the shock phase. "I was embarrassed at first, but I realized that he's hot, and funny, and nice, and he loves me, too. So take that Dana Webber!"

"Hey! Settle down, class." The teacher said, because everyone was laughing or whispering or talking about it. "Lydia, get down from there."

"Yes, sir." She laughed, keeping her eyes on Stiles. He was smiling dumbly, as she stepped down from her chair. He stood up from his desk, and everyone was cheering and clapping as he walked up to Lydia, and kissed her. They were both smiling into it, and they couldn't even hear the bell ring over the sound of all the cheering. Kira was cheering the loudest.

They didn't get to kiss long, before they were being pulled apart by the teachers. They were both laughing and smiling so much, that their faces hurt.

Their English teacher had called for backup, so there were now three teachers in that one classroom.

"Detention after school today. Both of you." The teacher from across the hall stated. They were too happy to care about that, though. "That kind of behavior will not be tolerated here."

"Worth it." Stiles mouthed to Lydia, and she laughed, and then pushed her lips together to hide it from the teacher.

"What?" His English teacher asked, looking between both of them like he missed something.

"What?" Stiles says back, purposely confusing them even more.

"Get to class!" One of the teachers said, rolling his eyes. They walked out into the hallway, their hearts still racing.

"I'm in love with you too, Lydia." Stiles said, kissing her again. He put his arms around her waist, but it wasn't long before they pulled them apart again. Neither cared about how much trouble they were about to get into, because they were too happy.

"Go to class! Now! If I see either of you acting up again, I'll talk to the principal about suspension!" A teacher says, and they smile and wave at each other as they both go to class. He didn't think he had ever been this happy in his life.

Lydia was outgoing, but she definitely wasn't the kind of person that would stand up in front of a class to declare her love for someone. Especially a person that only few people in the school even knew about. That's why he was so happy. She did something really out of character, because she loved him that much.


	14. Janitors Closet

Every class he went to next, people were either talking _to_ him, or talking _about_ him. Word travels fast, especially when you're dating the most popular girl in school, and _she's_ the one who begged for you back in front of an entire classroom.

It was actually pretty cool at first. Everyone clapped for him when he came into class, and they were all thrilled that something exciting was happening in beacon hills (if only they knew about the werewolves).

Then he started hearing embellishments.

He heard stories about how Lydia busted the door open without permission, and screamed at the teacher to let her speak. There were other stories about how Stiles had turned her down, and then another that he was the one who came in and confessed his love for her, and she spit at him. The worst one, though, was the rumor that Lydia busted in, yelled at Stiles, and out of spite, Stiles started making out with Dana Webber right in front of the whole class. He couldn't believe that was an actual rumor that people believed. Some people hated him, some people loved him; it all depended on what rumor they heard first.

He was sick of all of it. He couldn't believe he was saying this, but he actually wanted to go back to being invisible. It was Friday, so he knew it would all be blown over by Monday. He just had to make it through the next few classes.

Eventually he saw Scott across the hall on his way to detention, and Stiles breathed in a sigh of relief as he approached him. Scott immediately yanked him into a janitor's closet, and Stiles almost fell over trying to balance himself. Scott was freaking out as he told him the rumor he heard. Stiles changed his mind; the one Scott heard was definitely the worst.

"Someone told me that Lydia came in unannounced, and you both just started taking your clothes off, trying to have sex. Then the principal came in and suspended you. God, I didn't believe it, but school has been crazy today! I hadn't even seen you since we got here, and it's all people were talking about!" Scott says, shaking his head.

"What?! People are saying that? Oh my God!" Stiles says, throwing his hands in the air. "You haven't talked to Kira? She was in there when it happened!"

"No, I haven't. She had a half day because they wanted to leave early to travel upstate to see her family for the weekend. What exactly happened?!" Scott asked, pulling on the strap of his backpack. Stiles explained it; a grin plastered to his face. He told him how everyone was cheering, and even the tidbit where he kissed her in the hallway and almost got suspended. Scott was proud, of course, but he was also really, really happy, because he knew Stiles was happy. He was also proud of Lydia, because he also knew that that was completely different than the Lydia he (sort of) knew his whole life.

"I told you she'd come around eventually." Scott said, hugging him. "So you two are dating? For real this time?"

"Yeah, I think so." Stiles said, looking at the ground and smiling. Again.

"I'm so happy for you bro. You deserve this." Scott says, patting him on the back.

"Thanks. I feel so…I don't know, relieved maybe? We sort of were dating for those few days, but it really feels like it now. That whole time her embarrassment was nagging at the back of my mind, and it wouldn't go away. Now that it's over, though, I just...God, I'm friggin' ecstatic." He says, finally letting out a breath.

"It's great to see you so happy." Scott says, still smiling supportively.

"It feels good. I guess I'll ask her if she wants to go on a date tonight since last nights plans sort of fell to pieces. I better get to detention though, or I'll be late." Stiles said, and Scott fixed his hair.

"There you go." Scott smiled, looking at Stiles' hair like it looked perfect now. "Tell Lydia I said hey. Have fun tonight, dude. Text me after."

"I will. Bye, Scott." Stiles said, breathing in deeply, and then walking out of the closet. There were only a few kids there now; scattered in different classrooms for either tutoring, a club, or, like him, detention.

Stiles went left, and Scott went to the right; directly towards the exit. Stiles breathed in deeply, as he pushed the door to the classroom open.


	15. Detention

**I originally was going to only make it about three chapters, where Malia leaves with her mom, and when Stiles tells Lydia he loves her, she confesses that she was in love with him too. I got carried away, and wrote a lot more! But I'm really enjoying writing this, so I'll think I'll drag it on for a few more chapters if any of you want that. Let me know!**

* * *

"Where's Lydia?" Stiles asks the teacher as he walks into the classroom, knowing for sure she should be there by now. He looks around the class, but there's only a few other kids.

"Different classroom," The teacher said unenthusiastically, writing something on the chalkboard. "Did you really think I would put you two in the same room after that incident earlier? Sit down, please, Mr. Stilinski, you're already late."

"Yes, sir." He gulps, scrambling into his seat. He hangs his head low, slightly ashamed. Looking back, he couldn't believe he had done all of those things earlier. Lydia brought out the confidence and boldness in him, and he was worried that might would get him in even worse trouble one day. He couldn't seem to care much about that though, since he was dating Lydia freakin' Martin. Plus, it might be good for him to be a little bolder sometimes. He needed that.

He stared at the clock for so long, that the backs of his eyes started to hurt. _Tick, tick, tick_. Time went by so slowly. Even slower than class this morning, if that was possible.

Eventually, after what seemed like dozens of hours, the bell rang. He grabbed his backpack and bolted out of the room, into the hallway. He peeked into the window of every classroom he passed, but most of them were either tutoring, or just a teacher staying late to grade papers.

He was so excited, because he was going to ask her out. His hands were even shaking from nerves, even though he was certain she would say yes, since they were dating and all. He still felt weird thinking that. He couldn't believe that after all these years, he was finally dating her, and she loved him. It felt too surreal to even think about.

Finally he reached the classroom she was in. He was ecstatic, as he pushed the door open. As soon as he did, though, he regretted it. The teacher was gone, and there was Lydia, pinned against a wall, making out with some boy that Stiles didn't recognize. His mouth fell open, and he gulped.

"Lydia." He whispered, trying not to cry. Apparently it was a loud enough whisper, because the boy turned, and so did Lydia. She saw him, and her face fell completely. The boy had Lydia's lipstick all over his mouth, which made Stiles cringe. He turned around, and started to quickly walk back down the hall.

"Stiles!" She said, breaking away from the boy, and running after him. When she caught up, she grabbed his hand, and stopped him. She was crying.

"No! No more, Lydia! I'm sick of this. I love you, but you're breaking my heart. I can't do this." He says, slowly letting his back slide down the wall. He couldn't cry. He couldn't.

"Please, Stiles. It wasn't like that." She says, falling on her knees in front of him. She held his hand in her shaking one, and he was too exhausted to pull away. He had been so happy, and it took two seconds to ruin that.

"I love you, Lydia. I thought you loved me too." He says softly, and a tear falls down her face, and splashes on the floor.

"I do. I love you so much, Stiles." She cries, and sniffs.

"Then why would you do this to me?" He asks, completely drained of energy.

"I didn't. It wasn't what you thought." She says, looking disgusted.

"Then what was i-" He started to ask, but then it clicked. "Lydia. Did he...was he making you do that?"

She didn't reply. She looked down at the floor, and stifled back sobs.

"Lydia, I have to know. Please. Oh my God, please, Lydia." He begs, sitting up and holding her face in his hands.

"He kept staring at me during detention, and it creeped me out." She said, crying into his shirt. "Then the teacher left to do something, and he attacked me. I tried to get away, but he was too strong. I couldn't. I thought…"

"Don't. Don't say it." He says, squeezing her. "I'm so sorry I accused you of that. God, I'm sick at my stomach right now."

"I'm so glad you came in there when you did, Stiles. I was so scared." She says, hugging him.

"I'm going to kill this guy." He says, helping her up, and walking back to the classroom angrily. She kept at his pace, and then Stiles walked into the classroom. The guy was packing his backpack, and Stiles clenched his fists.

In any normal situation, Stiles would be scared to death. He wasn't a fighter, really, all he wanted was for everyone to be at peace. But this wasn't a normal situation.

"Come back for more? Couldn't stay away, huh?" The boy asks, eyeing Lydia up and down, and biting his lip crudely.

"Hey, you listen to me, you son of a bitch." Stiles says, clenching his jaw and fists, and approaching him.

"Let me, Stiles." Lydia says, walking towards him. The boy started laughing in a ' _what's a girl gonna do?_ ' manner. That's when she showed him exactly what a girl can do.

She punched him hard in the face, and he doubled over. Not only that, but she stomped as hard as she could on his foot, which most likely broke at _least_ two toes.

"You bitch!" He says, and blood starts pouring from his nose, and he starts hopping on one leg so he doesn't fall over.

"Don't call her that!" Stiles says, punching him again. He fell over this time, and Lydia grabbed Stiles' hand.

"Come on. Let's go talk to the principal."


	16. Pre-date

"He only got suspended? God, he should be in jail or something for that." Stiles says, picking at the carpet outside Lydia's door. She was getting ready for their date, but wasn't fully done yet when he got there, so he was sitting on the ground, waiting outside of her bedroom door.

"There's the adolescent justice system for you. Or justice system at all." He hears her muffled voice through the door, and leans his head against it.

"You're okay, though…right?" He asks, still worried for her.

They had talked to the principal, and he said he would 'take care of it'. They couldn't exactly tell him that they had gone back and punched the guy, so she told him that he attacked her, so she hit him for self defense. Turns out that she had broken his nose, broken three of his toes, and Stiles had given him a black eye. Of course all of their parents had been notified, and that boys parents stomped in angrily. They didn't believe such a 'good son' would do that, and they made a huge scene. Lydia had acted strong, but instead of going to her car afterwards, she went to Stiles', and cried her eyes out.

" _Please tell me nothing like this has ever happened to you before...has it?" He asked, running his hands over her hair to calm her down._

" _Are you kidding? When you're a popular girl, and you turn a popular guy down, they think you owe them something. They think you sleep with everyone, and if you don't want to mess around with them, they get angry." She laughs bitterly, and his stomach twists._

" _God, Lydia. I had no idea." He says, holding her._

" _Nobody does. I've only told you." She whispers, and holds his hand. He leans his head on hers, and they sat there silently in his Jeep for a while._

 _After time had passed, she sat up, wiped her tears, and laughed._

" _That was stupid. I was being a baby. Don't tell anyone about this, okay?" She laughs, reaching for the door handle. He was slightly confused, but he nodded. He knew that she hated when people saw her emotions, and this was her way of coping._

" _I won't. But you don't have to hide your feelings from me, Lydia. You can talk about it." He says, looking in her eyes. He thought she would laugh, but she didn't._

" _I know, Stiles." She smiled, and then got out of the car. He sat in his seat for a minute, and then hurriedly got out so he could catch her. She was backing up out of the parking lot as he put his hands on the hood of her car._

 _"What?" He saw her mouth to him through the windshield, laughing._

 _He was panting, as he walked around to her window, and she rolled it down._

 _"Date tonight?" He asked, trying to catch his breath._

 _"Yeah." She smiled, biting her lip. "Yeah, of course."_

 _"Same time?" He asked, trying to be cool and not smile, but he couldn't help it. He was grinning ear-to-ear._

" _Mhmm. Sounds good." She smiles, watching him. He debated on whether he should say it or not. Would it be weird? But maybe she was expecting him to say it, and it's what she needed right now._

" _Okay, see you at seven. Love you." He said, and she froze. He thought he had ruined everything._

" _Come here, idiot." She laughed, and pulled his head into the car so she could kiss him. He was so relieved._

 _She pulled away and laughed, the swelling around her eyes already disappearing._

" _Love you, too." She said, and his heart started racing. "Bye."_

" _Bye." He said, standing there and watching her as she drove away._

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said, opening the door, and snapping Stiles out of his daydream. He almost fell over, because his head had been lying against the door when she opened it. "He was just some stupid jerk."

"He was more than some jerk, Lydia." He says, standing up. Then he saw how beautiful she looked. His heart was pounding against his rib cage.

"What do you think?" She smirks, and poses against the doorway. She was wearing a little black dress, black stilettos, and had her hair down in beautiful curls.

"God, you look great. Stunning, actually." He laughs nervously, and scratched the back of his neck. "I didn't...I don't think I dressed up enough."

"I think you look great." She said, biting her lip, and grabbing his tie. She pulled on it, until he had to prop his hands on the wall on either side of her. His hands were clammy and shaky, and she knew it.

She twisted her hand around his tie, pulled his face to hers, and kissed him. She reached down, blindly pulled his hands off the wall, and set them on her waist. He was terrified.

"Stop being so stiff." She laughed, and pulled him to the bed.

"Jesus, Lydia, you're gonna rip my tie." He said, looking down to fix it. It was really just a ploy, though, because he was scared to death of what was happening.

"Sexy." She says smugly, and pulls on it again, making him fall on top of her. They kissed for a few minutes, before she groaned and pulled away.

"Would you loosen up, Stiles?" She whines, and rolls her eyes.

"I can't! It's impossible." He says, gulping.

"Fine. I like being in control anyway." She says, pushing him off of her so she's on top. She hiked her dress up her thighs, so she could straddle him, and he couldn't breathe.

"Stiles, how are we supposed to ever have sex if you're going to hyperventilate just when you see my leg?" She says, trying not to smile.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." He says, trying to catch his breath.

She laughs, and leans back down to kiss him. He finally starts to relax, and then she slides her hands up his chest slowly. He sighs against her lips, and she tugs on his shirt, untucking it from his pants. She slowly unbuttons his shirt all the way to the top, and drags her lips away from his so she can pull his tie apart with her teeth. He can't focus on one thought for more than two seconds, because his mind is everywhere.

"Woah, wait." He hurriedly sits up, and scrambles to the other side of the bed, panting. It had taken him until she was fumbling with his belt, until he finally he had come to his senses. They were about to go on a date.

"Date. We're on a date." He says, shaking his head. He said it to remind her, but he mostly said it to snap himself out of his weird state he was in.

"I've heard of worse activities on a date." She says, rolling her eyes.

"Lydia." He says, smiling slightly.

"Just be adventurous, Stiles! Don't be so boring all the time." She says, and stands up off of the bed, flattening her dress out with her hands. He reaches over, pulls her back down on the bed, and gives her a long, slow, kiss.

"Wow. Do that again." She says, pulling him back down to kiss her after he had pulled away.

"Nope." He says as he stands up, buttoning his shirt back up, and fastening his tie.

"Giving me a taste and then taking it away. Kinky." She bites her lip, looking really, really sexy, he thought.

"Come on, Lydia. The movie starts in an hour and a half, and we still have to eat." He laughed, and discreetly gulped.

"Fine." She cracks a smile, and stands up. "Let's go then."

He smiled, and grabbed her hand.


	17. Date Part 1

"This is actually a really nice place. Good job, Stiles." Lydia smiles, and reaches down to hold his hand as they walk into the restaurant.

"You sound surprised." He laughs, feeling his palms start to sweat.

"Nah. I had total faith in you." She laughs quietly and lays her head against his shoulder.

They found a secluded booth in the back, and studied their menus. The waitress came and took their orders, and they sat and waited.

"You know, this has been a dream of mine since I was like ten years old." He laughs, rubbing the back of his neck.

"That's sweet." She smiles, biting her lip. "I knew you liked me, you know."

"I knew that you knew." He says, looking down, and tracing his finger along his napkin. "I also knew that you didn't like me back. Or that you ever would, really."

"But I do." She smiles, showing her dimples. He sighed and stared at her. He could look at her for hours.

"That's just something that I don't know if I can ever get used to." He says, looking at her like he's in a dream.

"I knew you had a crush on me. A lot of guys did. But they would get over it, and one day they would move on. You never did, though. I thought it was just some little crush, and it took me a really long time to realize that it was a lot more than that." She sighed, and watched him. It was hard for him to look people in the eye, so he stared at the rapidly dissolving bubbles in her carbonated soda instead. He could feel her staring at him though, which, like everything else she did, made him nervous. "I wish you would've told me how you really felt."

"What would that have gotten me?" He laughs, looking up at her. Now it's her that looks away.

"Nothing, I guess." She says, biting her cheek. "I wasn't a great person. I know that."

"Yeah you were. That's why I liked you so much, Lydia. You didn't let people run over you, but that doesn't mean you were bad." He says, setting his hand on top of hers.

"You were so nice to me. I wish I would've dated you back then." She says, turning her hand right-side up so she could hold his.

"God, Lydia, just because I was nice to you doesn't mean you owed me anything. I was just trying to be a decent human being, you know? You didn't like me back then. I'm just glad you do now." He says, feeling his heart thumping.

She opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly the waitress was setting their steaming food down in front of them. Lydia shrugged her shoulders and smiled, and so did he.

They told their waitress thank you, and then ate. Stiles got a burger and fries, and Lydia got a fancy pasta with a kind of sauce that he couldn't pronounce.

Even when they were done with their food, they still sat there for a while and talked. She talked about her parents, and he talked about he didn't see his dad much anymore, because he worked all the time so he could pay off some stuff.

"I guess we better go. The movie starts in less than thirty minutes, and I want a good seat." Stiles says, reaching into his pocket for his wallet. They ended up splitting the bill, and then also halved the tip.

"You don't need to open the car door for me." Lydia smiles, shaking her head.

"Okay. I wasn't sure what your stance on that was." He laughed, and went around to his side. He was about to crank the Jeep, but she gently set her hand on top of his.

"Stiles." She said quietly, and that familiar getting-sick-on-a-roller-coaster feeling whooshed over him once again. He had a hunch that he would get that feeling a lot more lately, because it occurred every time she said his name. Or even looked at him. They were dating now, so he figured that would be regularly.

"Mhmm?" He asked, looking through the window and watching a lady walk her dog.

He wanted to look at Lydia. He wanted to listen to what she had to say while looking her straight in the eye, but it was so hard. All she had to do was look at him, or speak to him, and he felt like he could melt away any second. It was hard to keep your composure when you fell apart at something so simple.

"I've never...felt this way about someone before." She whispered, and he finally turned to look at her to make sure it was real. She looked nervous. She was biting her lip (which she only did when she was nervous or trying to be sexy, he learned), and she looked timid. She didn't like sharing her feelings like this, and he knew that.

He stared at her for a second, and then kissed her. It was slow and sensual; a lot different from the heated one from earlier at the house. This one was heated, definitely, but in a completely unalike way. It wasn't a wildfire like before; it was the slow-burning ashes that remained after putting out a flame. It was deep and meaningful, and he had never experienced anything like this with Malia. Or anyone else, for that matter.

It was like they had switched places. She was the one telling him how she felt, and he was the one whose first instinct was to makeout with her when she did. It was strange, but new and exciting. Besides, he didn't have words to say, anyway. She already knew how much he loved her. Well, as much as she _could_ understand. She would never really know just _how_ much.

She was surprised, but it didn't take long before she was even more eager than he was. She pulled him down on top of her, and ran her fingers slowly through his hair. The only sound in the car was their frequent, quiet moans, and uneven breaths. He couldn't believe this was happening. He stopped thinking that though, because he knew his mind was always what ruined everything for him.

She was in the middle of untying his tie, when they heard a loud knock on the window. They instantly froze.

"Do something!" Lydia whispered, and Stiles sat up, and rolled the window down. He knew that his hair was wild, his shirt was untucked, and he probably had lipstick smeared across his face.

"It's…not what it looks like…?" Stiles tested, seeing if this guy would believe it. It was a man - probably in his early seventies - cleaning up the restaurant parking lot.

"What were you two doing in here?" The man asks, and Lydia smooths out her dress.

"Um...nothing! I mean, we were talking, you know. Nothing else. We weren't...making out or anything." Stiles laughs uncomfortably, and Lydia nudges him hard in the arm.

"Oh really? Because to me, and this may not be correct since I'm so old and apparently blind, it looked like you actually _were_ 'making out'. That's not allowed here." He said, with a slight edge to his voice. "You two need to leave, so I can go about my business. I never like getting managers involved."

"Fine - fine! We'll leave. God, and who even sweeps parking lots anyway?" Stiles asks, and the man narrows his eyes at him, obviously annoyed. "Okay...bye." Stiles said fearfully, and quickly rolled his window up.

He hurriedly peeled out of the parking lot, and drove towards the movies, taking in a long breath. He was still slightly shocked. They both started laughing after a few minutes, when the fright finally wore away.

"Damn," Lydia laughed, and sighed. "Just when things were starting to get good."


	18. Date Part 2

"You pick." He nudged her arm, as they looked up at the list of movies playing. "We already missed the one I was going to choose."

"Worth it, though." She laughed, and squinted her eyes so she could read the showtimes. He smiled, and put his arm around her. "What about that one? It looked pretty good on commercials."

"That's fine with me." He said, even though he didn't even see what she was pointing at, because he was looking at her.

"You get the tickets next time. I've got these." She said, reaching in her purse, and walking up to the ticket booth. He sighed and rolled his eyes, but he knew there was nothing he could do about it.

They ended up seeing the new romantic comedy of the month. Stiles tried to strategically find the best seats possible, but even when he did, Lydia pulled him to the back of the theater, away from everyone else.

"Look. I know a lot of teenagers like to sit in the back and make out during movies, but that's not happening tonight, okay? I'm not the kind of person to waste money on a movie and not even watch." He says, munching on popcorn.

She turned his chin so he was looking at her, and she smiled, before leaning in, and pressing her lips to his. She stuck her tongue in his mouth, and scooped out a few pieces of the popcorn he had eaten. She licked some of the butter off of his lips, and then pulled away; turning to watch the screen like nothing had happened.

"Fine by me." She said, chewing on the popcorn. He was practically choking, because she always did something unexpected like that. That was practically the very last idea on a long list of things that he thought would happen when he said he didn't want to make out while watching a movie. He started to rethink his decision about it too, because God, he was sitting next to _Lydia Martin_ , and she wanted to make out with him. Maybe just for a few minutes…

No. That was exactly what she wanted to happen when she pulled that 'eating popcorn out of his mouth' stunt. It was gross, but also sort of sexy in a really, really strange way. She did that just so he wouldn't be able to resist making out with her. He refused to let her win.

A few minutes later, the movie started. He was impressed, because it took about fifteen minutes for her to make her first move. She leaned in and whispered something about the movie in his ear, and knowing it was another attempt, he just nodded his head and kept watching. She was annoyed by that, of course, so a few minutes later she tried again.

"It's kind of cold in here, don't you think?" She leaned in even closer this time; close enough for her lips to touch his ear, and send chill bumps across his skin. He shifted slightly. Her lips curved into a smile against him, because she knew what she was doing to him. As badly as he wanted to, he wouldn't give in. He refused.

"You want my jacket?" He asked, taking it off, and laying it across her shoulders. He wanted to laugh as she rolled her eyes, but he restrained.

"I was actually thinking of something else…" She said seductively, setting her hand on his knee. "Something that could produce more body heat, maybe." She whispered this time, slowly moving her hand up his leg, and softly pressing her lips to his neck. His eyes flickered closed and he gulped, as she continued to leisurely move farther and farther down his throat. He was sure she could feel the pounding pulse in his neck.

She squeezed his thigh gently, and that's when he snapped out of it. He pulled her hand from his leg, and moved. He was practically falling out of his chair he was freaking out so bad.

"You - you have to stop that!" He whispered loudly, gulping and blinking hard. "Does being a banshee also come with some kind of seducing power too?!"

"I had this gift long before I became a banshee." She said smugly, and smirked.

"Just watch the damn movie, Lydia." He sighed, and shook his head, smiling.

"Fine." She replied, crossing her arms.

He watched the movie, but eventually he got bored. The movie wasn't boring, really, but he couldn't stop thinking about Lydia. He propped his chin on his hand, and discreetly looked over at her. He watched her watch the movie. She would smile sometimes, and then frown sometimes. When something bad happened, her eyes would get wide, and she would shove popcorn into her mouth. It was normal human things, really, but even tiny things were special when it was someone you were in love with that was doing them.

He shifted his body so he was leaning towards her now, and he kissed her cheek. She looked over at him and smiled, and then laid her head on his shoulder. He put his arm around her, and they watched the rest of the movie.


	19. Date Part 3

After the movie was over, and the lights brightened from their dim glow, everyone slowly stood up from their seats. Some people were smiling, very pleased with the movie, and others were yawning and stretching like they had fallen asleep and just been awoken.

"That was pretty good." Stiles said, nodding his head with approval.

"I would have rather made out." Lydia stated bluntly, but then shrugged her shoulders. "But it wasn't bad, I guess."

"You know, I think this is my first real date." Stiles said, as they pushed through the doors, temporarily blinded by the sudden lights.

"I'm glad it was with me." She smiled, and reached down to hold his hand.

"I wish it didn't have to end so soon." He told her, as they walked towards the exit. Suddenly she stopped, and since they were holding hands, it jerked him backwards after he had taken another step.

"Let's not leave yet, then." She replied, and he narrowed his eyes at her.

"What...do you mean?" He asks, and she pulls him to the side to let people pass them and go through the exit.

"Come on, Stiles, I know you've heard of theater hopping. See two movies, only pay for one?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh…" He said, looking around for any employees. "I haven't had great experiences with that."

"Huh?" She asked, tilting her head.

"Me and Scott tried that when we were in middle school. We wanted to see two, but we only had money for one. We snuck into the second, but we got caught. An employee came in and was checking tickets, and obviously we didn't have ours." He sighed, and shook his head. "They called the cops, but luckily my dad was one who showed up. He was furious."

"Well at least you were off the hook! Seriously, Stiles, you were just kids. We know how to be more sneaky now." She said, smiling deviously.

"I don't know…" He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"We can go watch a scary movie." She says, in a voice that made the idea of watching a horror movie strangely enticing.

He thought about it. Doing fun, dangerous things with Lydia, or go home and watch TV the rest of the night alone? In the end, it wasn't very hard to choose.

"Yeah. Let's do it." He said, gulping nervously.

"Great." She grinned, and looked around for employees. "The next scary movie showing is in twenty minutes. It's on the other side, though, so we'll have to sneak past."

"God, this is terrifying." Stiles says, taking in a deep breath.

"It's fun, Stiles. The chance of being caught is kind of a turn on." She smirks, and he feels like he could collapse any second. She laughs and grabs his hand, pulling him down the hall.

They finally spotted the room they needed to go in for the movie. They had snuck past a few employees, and Lydia told Stiles to act normal. That made him act less normal, but the employees didn't look very suspicious, so they figured they got away with it.

They were approaching the room, when a worker stopped them. Stiles felt his heart beating out of his chest.

The boy was probably only seventeen or eighteen; close to their age. He looked slightly nervous to call them out, but it was his job.

"Do you need help with something?" He asked, narrowing his eyes with skepticism. He had obviously watched them while they came from a different room. There was no way to get out of this.

"Yes!" Lydia said enthusiastically, and smiled. Stiles was so confused. "Me and my brother have been looking for our movie for so long. We keep accidentally going in the wrong ones. I'm sorry, but it's just so confusing. Can you help me?"

"Oh, um, yeah." The boy blushed and smiled, obviously embarrassed by Lydia's flirtation. Stiles was sure that the boy was also glad at the fact that they were siblings instead of boyfriend/girlfriend. Lydia was smart. "Which movie are you looking for?"

"Oh, just that new scary one." She smiled, brushing her hand across his chest bashfully. Stiles was jealous, obviously, but also impressed. She was great at this.

"Cool! That's cool." The boy said, smiling hugely and looking down at the floor shyly. "Oh - it's the next one on the right."

"Thank you!" Lydia grinned, and kissed his cheek. His face flared red.

"This place is pretty, um, big. I even get lost sometimes." He said, laughing nervously.

"You're so funny! What's your name?" Lydia asked, brushing her hair back. Stiles could tell that the boy was in a daze; watching blankly as she flipped her hair to the side. He knew how that felt.

"Thomas." He says, linking his hands together behind his back.

"Well I'm Lydia. It was nice to meet you, Thomas." She smiled, and looked up at him through her long lashes. "If I need anymore help, I'll make a point to find you."

"Oh yeah! I mean, yeah. You should." He says, blushing again.

"Bye. Thanks for everything." Lydia said flirtatiously, as they walked past him, and into the theater room.

"Your brother?! Really?" Stiles whispered, as he pulled her to the side in the dark middle room between the lobby and actual movie theater.

"Come on, it was nothing. It wouldn't have worked if he knew you were my boyfriend." She said, obviously proud of herself.

He put his arms around her waist, pulled her to him, and kissed her hard. By the time they pulled away, they were both out of breath.

"What was that for?" She panted, and grinned. "Were you jealous?"

"Yes! Isn't that obvious?" He laughed, and ran his fingers through his hair. "You're just so good at it. Even _I_ started to believe that we were lost. I'm pretty sure he's in love now."

Lydia laughed, and pulled him back down to kiss her. They even started french-kissing, which made Stiles' stomach do flips.

Then of course, like always, they got interrupted. A large group of younger teenage boys bursted through the doors, laughing and being loud.

"I guess that's our queue." Stiles laughed, trying to act normal. His hands were fidgety, and he was sweating profusely.

They walked behind the teenagers, and he was sure that they hadn't even seen them. They were the kind that were loud and obnoxious in groups, which was exhausting for everyone around. The boys sat in the back, so Lydia and Stiles sat in the middle.

"I've heard that watching a horror movie is great foreplay." Lydia whispers in his ear, wanting to continue what they didn't get to finish earlier.

"There are people behind us." Stiles laughs, shaking his head. God, he wanted to, though. "No way."

"Seriously? They're probably having some mass jack off competition back there anyway." She said, sitting back in her seat.

"Jeez, Lydia." He laughed, and held her hand. "God, and do you have some kind of kink about wanting to do stuff in public? Because that's not my thing."

"It's hot, but no. It doesn't matter where we are, really, because I'd want to make out anyway." She sighs, and purses her lips. He nuzzled his nose against her neck, and she laughed.

"Stop!" She laughed, playfully pushing him. He kissed her then. It was right as the lights dimmed, and she instantly melted into it. There was scary music playing, but nothing could make his heart race faster than it was now.

"Hey, take your top off!" One of the boys in the back said, which made all of the other ones crack up and cheer. Stiles was about to turn around and give him a piece of his mind, but Lydia beat him to it.

"Hey, how about you stop disrespectfully calling out girls that are way out of your league, and start worrying about your tiny dick that you will never use." Lydia says, snapping back at them with her wit. "And that also goes for all of you other jerk offs that are laughing at the degradation of women."

"Oh shit, Lydia." Stiles laughs, and they high-five. The boys sunk back into their seats, and they didn't hear another peep out of them for the rest of the movie.

Lydia turned around in her seat, and laid her head on Stiles' shoulder like nothing had happened. It made him sad to realize that she was used to that.


	20. Date Part 4

"That was really scary. I still have chill bumps." Lydia laughs, as they're walking through the parking lot to his Jeep. She hugs up to him, and he rubs his hand up and down her arm to warm her up.

"Me too. I'll probably have nightmares tonight." He laughs, and she smiles.

"Hey, I know it's late," He says, climbing into the vehicle and looking over at her. "But do you want to come over for a while? I don't feel like sleeping any time soon, and I'm too scared to be alone."

"Sure." She smiles, and he nods and smiles, too. He looks at the clock on his dash, and sees that it's a little past midnight. It's not too late.

"I'm getting kind of hungry. Do you want to go pick something up?" He asks, pulling out of the parking lot.

"God, yes. I would kill for some greasy mozzarella sticks right now." She practically moans, and his stomach starts to rumble.

He drives to the nearest fast food restaurant, and basically orders a three course meal for both of them. Lydia holds the bags in her lap, as they drive to his house.

They walk inside laughing, and Lydia hoists herself onto a counter in his kitchen, as he sets her food down beside her.

"Come get a fry." She says biting half of one with her teeth, and leaving the other half hanging out of her mouth. He smiles and walks up to her, and slowly bites the other end off.

"Mmm," She says, pulling him back to her, and kissing him. They now had a habit of french kissing, and he definitely wasn't complaining about that.

"We're french-fry-kissing." He said, pulling away from her just to say that joke.

"Stiles..." She sighed, but he still noticed her trying to suppress her smile.

"You know it was funny." He grinned, mentally noting that joke so he could tell Scott later.

"You're so annoying." She laughed, pulling him back to her.

She hummed against his lips, and traced small circles under his ear with her finger. It was driving him crazy. In a really good way, though.

"I've seen too much PG-13 tonight. I'm ready for some R-rated." She whispered, as she kissed down his neck. He could've died right then and there.

She wrapped her legs around his back, and he pulled her face up so he could kiss her again. She grabbed his hands, and pressed them to her legs. She guided them up, up, until they were gripping her hips. He could hardly breathe.

" _Stiles?!_ " He hears his dad say, which almost makes him have a heart attack.

"Dad!" Stiles said loudly, as he pulled away from Lydia. "I, uh, thought you were at work. What are you doing?"

"The question is what are _you_ doing?" Mr. Stilinski asks, eyeing him and Lydia. She hops off of the countertop, and walks towards them, obviously embarrassed. "You...and _Lydia_?" He asks in a completely confused voice, which Stiles understood. Everyone knew he was completely in love with her, but no one, with maybe the exception of Kira and Scott, thought anything would ever actually happen between them.

"Um, yeah." Stiles says, taking in a deep breath and looking at Lydia. "We're sort of dating."

"And when exactly was I going to find out about this?" His dad asks, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms, in a typical 'My Kid Is Supposed To Tell Me Everything Because I'm The Parent' sort of way. He looked entirely surprised and also lost, like 'when the hell did this happen?' or more like ' _how_ the hell did this happen?'

"I was going to tell you, Dad. I haven't seen you in days." He replied, pressing his thumb into his hand.

"I know, I know." He says, looking down at the floor. "I got off at seven, but I have to go back at five tomorrow morning. I'm exhausted, but I can't seem to sleep."

"Sorry. We were just...we went on a date, and we watched a scary movie, so I just asked her to come over for a while. She wasn't going to stay or anything." Stiles says, looking over at her.

"Sorry, Mr. Stilinski." Lydia said quietly, and he laughed.

"It's fine, Lydia. Stiles, you know the rules, though." His dad said, looking at him sternly like he was just magically supposed to know. He figured it was normal parental rules, though, like 'can't sleep over at each others houses' 'can't stay out past eleven' and, probably most important right now would be 'no making out on our kitchen counter'.

"Yeah, dad. Won't happen again." He said, standing up straighter.

"Good. Now what I really came down here for, is because you got a letter. From Malia."

"Really?! Where?" Stiles asks, frantically looking around for it.

"Here. I didn't open it." His dad said, pulling it out of his back pocket.

"Thanks." Stiles replied, smiling and tearing the envelope open anxiously.

"Hi, Lydia." He hears his dad say, but his mind is focused on something else. He was desperate to hear how Malia was doing. He had begun to think she had already forgotten about him, but this made him feel so much better. He missed her.

He pulled out the paper, and quickly scanned his eyes over it.

 _Dear Stiles,_

 _Why is writing a letter so hard? I miss you. I miss Scott, Kira, Lydia, and Liam, too. I'm fine. Mom is fine. We are having a good time together. We are catching up. I had to turn human again to send this. I hate it. I want to keep contact. Send a letter back fast, I want to know how everyone is._

 _Love, Malia._

He smiled after he read it, looking down at the floor. It was quick, and straight to the point. No details, no extra smiley faces, nothing. But that was okay, because it made him happy to know that some things won't ever change. She was probably a lot happier now, and that made him happy too.

"Your dad said you needed to take me home." Lydia laughed quietly, trying to test if he was okay or not.

"Yeah. Yeah, let's go." He looked up, and just now noticed his dad was gone; probably off to bed.

Lydia grabbed her food off the table, and brought it with her as they got in the car. They didn't talk much. He was thinking about Malia.

"Do you miss her?" Lydia asks finally, breaking the silence.

"Like crazy." He sighs, gripping the steering wheel.

"I still don't get why she left. I mean, I know it was her mom, but you two were dating. She had friends here." Lydia says, looking over at him with eyes that made his swallowing thick.

"I told her to. She wasn't happy here, Lyd. She was failing almost every class, and she still hadn't conformed, like, at all." He laughed thinking about it. "We weren't even really dating, anyway. We love each other, but not in that way. We both knew that I would always be in love with you."

Lydia swallowed hard.

"How long? Did you know you were in love, I mean?" She asked quietly, and he laughed, running his fingers through his hair. They pulled into Lydia's driveway, and he parked. They heard the buzzing of a bug zapper on her front porch.

"Since the day I saw you. I know that's stupid, because we were just kids, but it's true. You just trudged into class every day, with that little mermaid clip in your hair. I watched as the boys behind you kept pulling your hair in art class one time, and you turned around and smacked one of them in the face. You got in trouble of course, but I was so in love." He laughed, looking down at his hands. "Dad knew it too. He said it was puppy love, of course, and maybe it was then, but it never changed. He kept expecting me to come home, finally talking about some other girl, but it wasn't until my freshman year that he realized that would never happen. Year after year, it was always you, Lydia. Everything around me changed, but loving you was a constant."

"I….I have to go." Lydia said, leaving so quickly that she left her food laying in the passenger side. He quickly opened his door, and stood by the hood of his Jeep as she walked towards her house; running her fingers through her hair frustratedly.

"Did-did I do something? That story's embarrassing, I know, but I just...just forget I said it. I'm sorry, Lydia!" He gave one last effort, before she shut the door, wordlessly giving him her goodbye.


	21. Alone

**The Teen Wolf episode last night was so sad! Who agrees? And also, I think I'm going to update two times a week now. Probably Tuesday and Friday! Tell me what you think! (Also, the next chapters are going to be sad, so be prepared!)**

* * *

When he woke up, he was covered in his own drool. He didn't know the science behind it, but if he stayed up too late, that was always the inevitable result the following morning. He was happy he didn't have school that day, at least.

He groaned loudly, and halfway opened his eyes to glance at his alarm clock. It was 2:36 P.M. He groaned even louder now, pulling the pillow over his head. He couldn't believe he had slept that long, but then again, he didn't fall asleep until 5 A.M.

A few minutes later, after painfully remembering what happened the past night, he sat up, and yawned. The light was pouring through the window, which made him give a long, exaggerated sigh.

He grabbed his phone from his nightstand, hoping and praying that Lydia had texted him. He just wanted an explanation. Getting a text that said ' _the food made me sick, and I didn't want to puke on you, so I ran inside_ ' would be ideal, but he had a feeling that it was something far from that.

He had tons of texts, but they were all from Scott. Not even one of them was from Lydia. He fell back into his bed, and pulled the blanket over his head. He wanted to just lay in bed and sulk for the rest of his entire life.

He tried to think of what could have possibly gone wrong. The most viable answer, would be that he completely freaked her out. He went into too much detail, and he scared her away. He thought about the fact that she probably thought he was obsessed with her, which made him squeeze his eyes shut with shame and embarrassment. He never knew when to shut his mouth.

There really was not many other feasible reasons that she would just take off like that. She didn't say goodbye, didn't say I love you, didn't kiss him goodnight. The date had been going great, he thought, but maybe it wasn't like that for her. It was hard to know what Lydia was feeling. He would give anything to know what had been going through her mind last night.

He decided to text her. Best case scenario is that it was nothing, really, and she had just maybe gotten sick like he had hoped earlier. Not that he wanted her to be sick, but that seemed like the only decent answer that regarded him.

Worst case scenario, is that he freaked her out, scared her, and she already wanted to break up. He wasn't ready to give up yet, though.

' _Hey, Lydia. I'm not exactly sure what happened last night, but I want to say I'm sorry if it was anything I did. I've been thinking about it all night. Please text me back if you want to talk about it or something_.' He typed out, and his hand hesitated over the ' _L_ ' button. He decided he shouldn't say it again until he knew for sure that they were okay.

She didn't text back. Not after he finally got up and showered, and raced back to to the bed to check. Not when he watched a whole movie on TV just to pass the time. Not even when he met Scott and Kira at a diner for dinner.

"Kira I need your advice! You've never let me down." Stiles says anxiously, as he dunked his fries in his chocolate milkshake.

"Sorry, Stiles, but I'm just as lost on this one." She bites her lip, feeling bad.

"It's okay. I guess only Lydia can understand Lydia." He says, putting his head on his arms.

"Give her time to think about it. Maybe she had gotten a text that something bad had happened, you know? Like maybe a family member died or something." Scott shrugs his shoulders, trying to encourage him.

"She wasn't on her phone. Whatever it was, it was all me." He groans, and the waiter behind the counter shoots him a look.

"Sorry! Having girl problems." Stiles told him, loud enough for the whole diner to hear. Which made the guy give him an even worse look. Stiles was embarrassed, but too upset to care.

"Stiles, why don't you come over and hang out with us? We can watch movies or something. Anything you want." Kira said softly, like Kira always did.

"Yeah! It'll be fun." Scott says, sliding the rest of his burger across the table towards Stiles.

"I guess. I don't need to just sit around and sulk for the rest of the night." He replied, with a mouthful of burger.

"When this is all over and you figure out it was all just some misunderstanding, we should go on a double date." Scott says, and Stiles nods unenthusiastically.

"I just hope it all works out." He said, taking the last sip of his milkshake.


	22. Parental Guidance

It was almost midnight when he decided to leave Scott's house. They had fun, but he was exhausted. Mentally _and_ physically.

"I've been waiting for you to get home." His dad spoke, sitting at the dinner table as Stiles walked in the house.

"God, Dad, you scared me." Stiles replied, putting his hand over his quick-beating heart.

"Sit down, son." He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Stiles complied, pulling out a chair and sitting across from him. "You know I'm not great at this parenting thing..."

"I didn't 'defy your rules', Dad. I wasn't with Lydia, I was with Scott and Kira." Stiles laughed, noting the relieved look on his dads face.

"Great. That makes this a lot easier." His dad mumbles, taking in a long breath. He wouldn't normally believe the first word out of Stiles' mouth, especially if it was beneficial to him, but he could obviously tell something was wrong. "Where's Lydia then?"

"At her house, I'm sure." Stiles groans, putting his face on the table. "Something happened last night."

"Like a fight?" The sheriff questioned, looking concerned.

"I don't even know what it was, Dad." Stiles sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"You better not ruin this, Stiles, I mean it." His dad commanded, pointing at him sternly.

"Dad!" Stiles exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

"I'm serious. This is a good, smart girl, with a great head on her shoulders. You could use someone like her." Mr. Stilinski explained, and Stiles rolled his eyes.

"That's exactly how I've felt for the past eight years. I know for sure that she's smart enough to realize that she can do better than me." He muttered quietly, as he looked down at the dining table that they never used.

"Yeah, Stiles, you might be a hyperactive, dramatic, annoying kid," His dad starts to say, and Stiles shoots him a look. "but you have a great heart. One of the best I've ever seen. Anyone, and I mean it, would be lucky to have you."

"Thanks, Dad." Stiles smiles, trying his best to believe that.

"You're welcome. Don't give up, okay? I really think you two could work."

"I hope so. I'll go talk to her tomorrow." He replied to his Dad, watching him stand up from his chair.

"You do that. Let me know how it goes. I have to get up early tomorrow, so I probably won't see you." He told him, and Stiles couldn't help but notice that his dad looked beyond worn out.

He felt sad, knowing he was doing this all for him. He got up early, got little to no hours of sleep, and risked his life for him every day.

"Love you, Dad." Stiles whispered, walking over to give him a hug.

"Love you too, son." His dad responded, patting his back. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." He answered, watching him walk away. Then he stopped, and hesitated.

"I know it would've been easier to talk to your mom about this, but I'm always here. I'm sure Melissa wouldn't mind you talking to her about it, either." He told him, and Stiles nodded.

"I know. Thanks, Dad." He replied, and his dad nodded, and went upstairs.

He scavenged around the kitchen, before realizing there was not much food to pick from. He finally settled on some crackers, and then went to bed. Instead of thinking of all the bad things that could happen tomorrow, he tried his best to think about the good things.

* * *

 **I know this is pretty short, but it's kind of a filler. I might update on Sunday, though. Let me know what you think!**


	23. Good Company

The next day went by slowly. Scott and Kira were with her family, so Stiles was completely bored out of his skull. He wrote Malia a letter back, telling her how everything was going (he left out the part about him and Lydia having problems), that everyone said to tell her hi, and that he missed her, too. He spent as much time as he could doing that, but it ended up only taking fifteen minutes. By 10 am, he was already on the phone with Liam, asking him to hang out.

"Hey," Liam said, smiling slightly as he climbed into the passenger side of Stiles' Jeep.

"Hey." Stiles sighs, pulling out of Liam's driveway.

"Why are you up so early on a Sunday?" Liam asks, and Stiles' thumb started rapidly tapping the steering wheel.

"Couldn't sleep. Why are _you_ up so early on a Sunday?" Stiles questions. "Oh wait. Forgot your bedtime is at 8:30."

"Very funny. My mom needed help cleaning the house." He replied, as he flicked his finger at the rattling air conditioner fan.

"Ah." Stiles exhaled, nodding his head. It wasn't awkward, really, but Stiles wasn't really up for much talking. The good thing about Scott, is that he knew him so well, and he didn't mind just watching a movie marathon silently for hours. He had to give Liam a hard time of course, but he knew he really was a good kid, and definitely a great friend to have.

"So how are you and Lydia? I heard about what happened in class. The _real_ version, by the way, not those made up ones." Liam said teasingly.

Stiles smiled for a minute, remembering how amazing that day was. Then his smile faded, and he faked a cough.

"It was going really well," Stiles muttered, pulling into his driveway. He got out of the Jeep, and led the way into his house without saying anything else.

" _'Was'_ as in past tense? What happened?" Liam asks, tagging along right behind him. So close, in fact, that his feet kept hitting the back of Stiles' shoes.

"It was nothing, I guess." Stiles sighs, and sees the disappointed look on Liam's face.

"Okay. Yeah, it's fine." Liam nodded, understanding that he didn't want to talk about it. Stiles sighed. He would never, ever admit it out loud to anyone, but it really was hard to look at Liam's face when he was disappointed. If he asked for a million dollars, Stiles would've probably given it to him.

"We went on this really great date last night," He starts, giving in. Liam turns to him, nodding with anticipation. "I mean, it was _great_. We ate dinner, talked, watched movies. But when I took her home...Okay, I left out the part where Malia sent a letter."

"She did? What did it say?" Liam asks, smiling.

"She misses all of us. Including you." Stiles laughs, reaching over to ruffle Liam's hair. Liam smiled, and fixed it. "Anyway, me and Lydia talked, and she ended up asking me how long I, you know, have loved her..."

"Yeah?" Liam asks, nodding his head and listening intently.

"I told her everything. That it had been since the third grade, and that I've liked her...well, loved her, since. It was a lot longer speech than that, though. When I was done, I looked over at her, and her eyes were huge. She said _'I have to go,'_ and then left. She got out of the car, and was practically sprinting towards her house." He sighed, shaking his head at the thought. "I called after her, but she ignored me. I also text her yesterday, but she ignored me then, too. I don't know, Liam, I think I scared her or something."

"Oh man." Liam slowly shakes his head and looks down, as if he's the wisest person in the world.

"Yeah." He lets out a long breath, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I think you should give it time. She'll text you I think." Liam stated, and Stiles looks over at him.

"Why do you think so?" Stiles asks, desperate for an opinion. "God, I can't believe I'm taking relationship advice from a ten year old."

Liam ignored that comment.

"Because, Stiles. If it _isn't_ as important as you think, then she'll text you in a few days when she gets over it. If it _is_ something really important, she will have to text you to break it off. Unless she's waiting for school, which is tomorrow. Not to be harsh, but it's true." He admits, shrugging his shoulders.

"I guess you're right…" Stiles exhaled loudly, not liking the look of his outcomes. "All I can do is wait."

They watched a few movies, ate lunch, and then watched a few more movies. Stiles of course had to make some more jokes at Liam's expense, but Liam didn't mind.

By the time it was almost 6:00 pm, Liam had to go. Stiles drove him back home, and they said their goodbyes. Stiles could admit that he actually had a good time.

He got home, and he was bored, so he decided to take a nap. He trudged upstairs, and took one last look at his phone. He was disappointed of course, so he buried his head in his pillow, and went to sleep.

* * *

He had a text from Lydia. His eyes were halfway shut when he had glanced at his phone, but he fell off the bed when he read her name.

He breathed in deeply and closed his eyes, before opening them back up and reading the text.

' _I need to talk to you. Come over when you get this._ ' His eyes scanned it probably ten times, before it fully registered in his brain what it meant. That wasn't exactly what he wanted it to say, but it was at least something. He hoped that all of it was nothing, and he had just been reading into it.

He couldn't wait any longer to see her, so he threw some clothes on, ran downstairs, and got in his Jeep.

He drove to her house, and he was surprised when the clock read 9:00 pm. He waited in her driveway for probably five minutes, before finally getting the courage to walk up to her door. He held his fist up, about to knock, but before his knuckles could even touch the door, it creaked opened.

He smiled when he saw Lydia, but it didn't take long before worry filled him. She stood there with her eyes swollen from tears, sniffing and wiping her cheeks. She was in sweats, and her hair was tied up in a messy bun. She stood up straight, trying to look strong.

"Lydia what's wrong? Are you okay?" He asked, rushing towards her. She put her hand out, and pushed him away before he could touch her. His heart broke.

"Just..." She sighed, looking at the ground. He was about to die with anticipation. He tried to be hopeful, that maybe she had been sick this whole time, and didn't want him to catch anything from kissing her, or touching her.

"I can't do this anymore, Stiles. I don't want to be with you."


	24. In the Dark

**Ahhhh, the Stydia moment last night was so great, it made me so happy. I hope they put more of it in the season, it's so obvious he loves her! Anyway, this story is getting way out of hand! I only wanted to write the part where Malia leaves with her mom, and Stiles tells Lydia he's in love with her, but I just got carried away I guess, so I'm sorry!**  
 **(P.S. don't kill me over this chapter!)**

* * *

He wanted to hold her and kiss her like he got to do on Friday. He wanted to talk to her about the things she loved, hated, and everything in between. He wanted to wrap his arms around her as they watched movies and ate junk food on his couch, and he wanted to be able to tell her how much he loved her every day.

But he couldn't, because the thing he dreaded most, was happening right now.

"What?" He gulps, licking his lips. "What do you mean by that?"

"I thought I made it pretty clear. I'm breaking up with you!" She admits, throwing her hands in the air.

"Why?" He whispered, holding back tears. His gulps were thick, like he was trying to swallow glue that wouldn't go down.

"I just realized that I can't do all of this, Stiles! I can't! I can't go on dates with you, or make out in your kitchen, or hold your hand at school. I just can't do it." She shouted, crossing her arms. He flinched as she raised her voice.

"Please, Lydia! Just tell me what I did, and I'll fix it. I'll do anything, I mean it. You can have as much time as you want." He pleads, and she looks away from him.

"Just go, Stiles. That's all I want from you. Not time, not anymore dates. Just leave me alone." She whispers, and he's crying now.

"What about Friday? We had so much fun. I thought you were having fun." He chokes out, completely worn down. He felt like a shell of his former self; empty and hollow.

"Well, I wasn't!" She snaps, and he winced.

"I don't want to give up on us yet, Lydia. Not when, after all of these years of loving you, I'm finally getting my chance to show you how much." He begs, and she closes her eyes. "I can show you. I can show you how much I love you, okay? Just please don't do this to me. Not yet."

"Stiles, just leave. Don't make this any harder." She answers sternly.

He wonders when exactly it all fell to pieces. During the date? At his house? In the car? Had she been pretending the whole time? But why? He couldn't understand why she would ever want to hurt him like that. Why even go on the date in the first place? It gave him a bitter sweet false hope, which he wished with everything in his heart that he would be able to forget about sometime in the future.

"I thought you loved me, Lydia. You…you told me you loved me." He whispers, entirely defeated. He looked up at her, silently pleading. He had to prop his hand on the brick wall because he started feeling dizzy.

"I'm a good liar." She mutters quietly, and he closes his eyes.

He had never felt this much pain and torment in his life. He had always known that she had the power to either ruin his life, or make him the happiest man in the universe with only a look, a touch, or even a word. It wasn't fair to either of them, but it wasn't anything he could control.

"Why would you tell me that? Just to hurt me? I thought you...I thought you cared about me. Not just as a girlfriend, but as a friend at least. You know how much I love you." He whispers, but he knows it's too late. He wasn't going to change her mind now.

"I don't know what else to say to you." She breathes, avoiding eye contact.

"I just want to know why. You have to have a reason." He gulps, trying to discreetly get rid of his tears. She didn't answer. "I broke up with Malia for you."

"Oh, so I owe you something because of that?! I didn't ask you to do that for me!" She ranted, throwing her hands up in anger.

"No, Lydia! God, no, I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that...I could still be with her." He sighs, realizing he made a huge mistake.

"Stiles, you told me you don't love her like that." She said quietly.

"I know, but…" He replied, looking down and shaking his head.

"Don't do that to yourself! God, you'd be with someone even if you don't love them? I don't understand you." She breathes in deeply, and he feels like he's about to cry again.

"It's not complicated. It's simple, actually. I know that I will never, ever love someone as much as I love you, so I'm prepared to just settle for Malia because I like her, and I like being around her. It's all the same for me. If it isn't you, then it's all just the same." He tells her, lifting her chin so he can look in her eyes.

"Stop!" She yelled, pushing him away. She wiped her tears, and squeezed her eyes shut, sobbing into her hands.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that." He gulps, stepping backwards and rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm not trying to make you feel bad for me. I don't want that. Just please tell me...just tell me if you love me or not. If you don't love me, I'll leave you alone, and never say anything about this to you again. But if you do...we can find some way to work it out. Whatever you have a problem with, I'll fix it for you. Just tell me, please, Lyd. Please."

She looked at him. He understood that she didn't want to hurt him, but this she was doing purposefully and he couldn't understand why. He stared up at her, waiting for an answer, but for the second time in two days, she slammed the door on him.


	25. Isolation

**Like last weeks, this one is pretty short! So I'll probably update on Sunday again :)**

* * *

He drove home, and went straight to bed. He didn't text Scott, Liam, Kira, or anyone else, before he plopped down on his mattress, and didn't move for eighteen hours.

He felt like the world had stopped spinning. Finally he had gotten his chance with Lydia, and it all fell to pieces before he even had time to realize anything was wrong. He would rather have never even dated her at all, than gotten a wonderful taste like this, just to have it ripped away from him so suddenly.

He slept through most of school the next day, but it didn't really matter, because he wasn't going to go anyway. He couldn't face Lydia. He knew she would be acting normal; talking to her friends, paying attention in class, and he would just be like a miserable zombie; trying to pretend he was alright.

He knew he shouldn't blame himself, obviously, but it didn't matter how many times he told himself that, because it never worked.

Maybe she tried, but just couldn't like him that way. He understood that. It was still hard, though. He couldn't imagine him feeling so much for her, and she didn't feel anything for him. But, like he told Malia, that happens sometimes. You can't make someone love you, and even if you could, he didn't want that.

The worst part about all of this, is that she seemed like she liked him so much yesterday. He had never felt that happy in his life, really, because he never in a million years thought she would feel that way for him. She was right; she was a good liar.

He needed to let it go. It was over, and it was time for him to realize that. She didn't feel that way about him, and after years of knowing that, he should be used to it.

He decided that he was going to let himself be sad and miserable for the rest of the day, and then he was going to get over it. One day was all he was going to give himself to whine and complain about everything going on, and then tomorrow, he was going to march into school like nothing happened. He had to let this go.

He got up and made toast and cereal, and had some chocolate milk. He stared blankly at the wall while he munched down on his cheerios, and then tossed his bowl in the sink, and went right back upstairs. He wanted to cry and let out his emotions, but it was like he didn't have any. He just stared at something, and it seemed like hours were going by.

He heard the door open downstairs, and he already knew who it was. Not long after, Scott quietly slipped into his room, and laid down beside him. He had either put together what had happened after Stiles skipped school, or he found out from people at school talking about it. Stiles didn't care anymore about stupid rumors.

Scott didn't try and console him, or tell him it would all be okay. He was so thankful to have someone as close as Scott to know when comfort words wouldn't help, and he just needed someone to be there for him. He just laid down beside him, and didn't say anything. That was all Stiles needed right now.


	26. Another Rumor

"Scott, we're gonna be late for school. Get up." Stiles demands, throwing a pillow at him. He quickly ran a towel over his damp hair, and then tossed the towel in the bathroom.

"Stiles?" Scott yawns, sitting up and looking through one eye at him.

"What?" Stiles asks, throwing a shirt and pants on.

"Um...nothing. I guess." Scott replies, obviously confused. Stiles wasn't dumb. He knew exactly what Scott was thinking right about now. Something along the lines of: ' _Why aren't you in bed? Why aren't you ditching school? Is this like one of those movies where someone has something traumatic happen, so they block it out of their mind?_ '

"Look, Scott. This isn't like one of those movies, alright? I'm getting over this. I can't let this eat at me forever, you know?" He mumbled, and Scott nods.

"Yeah. Yeah, man, I get it. I'm here for you if you need someone to talk to, though." Scott stated, and Stiles gives him a half smile, and nods.

"Well get in line, Scott. Don't you see all of my other friends showing up at my house to comfort me?" Stiles laughs, and so does Scott, because he's happy to have the old Stiles back again.

"I'm borrowing some of your clothes." Scott reported, digging through Stiles' drawers.

"Have at it. I'll be downstairs. Do you want cereal or toast? Or both?" He asks, stopping in the doorway.

"Hmm. Both." Scott laughs, and Stiles nods, and heads to the kitchen. He puts both of their breakfasts' together quickly, and they take about two minutes to eat it.

"I'm...nervous to see her." Stiles stutters, glancing over at Scott in the passenger side of his Jeep. "Did you hear anything about it yesterday?"

"Um..." Scott mumbled, turning his head.

"Scott! I have to know what I'm getting myself into." He gulps, gripping his hands on the steering wheel nervously.

"Lydia didn't say anything, okay? Let's just get that out of the way first. It wasn't her who started the rumor." Scott tells him, which only makes him have even more anxiety from the conversation.

"Okay." Stiles breathes in, trying to be calm. Internally, though, he was panicking. Another rumor.

"Well, there's just a rumor going around that...you cheated on her." Scott tells him, and looks over at him cautiously.

"Stiles...are you okay?" Scott asks, as minutes went by and Stiles didn't reply.

"Yeah, Scott, I'm great." Stiles replies calmly, a little too calmly, Scott noticed.

"Where are we going?" Scott asks, as they pass the school.

"Literally anywhere but there!" Stiles finally blows up, swallowing hard.

"Pull over, Stiles. You need to talk about this." Scott tells him, but he keeps driving. "Stiles!"

"Jeez, fine!" Stiles exclaims, pulling his Jeep down an empty dirt road. He parked it, and just stared ahead at the road.

"I know what you're doing. You're pretending like nothing's wrong so you'll forget about it. That won't work, though, okay? When Allison died...I tried that. It's not healthy. It eats you up inside, and I can see right through it." He tells him, and Stiles just looks out the window and gulps.

"This just sucks so bad, you know? First her breaking it off so soon, and now this rumor? I just...want to everything to go back to the way it was." He sighed, and picked at the loose thread on his khaki pants. "How did the rumor even start?"

"I went and talked to Lydia to see if she had started it, because I heard someone whispering about it in class. She didn't of course, but she told me what happened. Someone asked where you were and she didn't answer, so people just assumed, I guess. People talked about it, and soon it was taken as the truth." He sighed loudly, and Stiles felt like dying. "She feels bad. She's tried telling people it isn't true, but nobody listens."

"How did she look?" Stiles asks, looking over at Scott.

"Tired. I know she had been crying. Her eyes were puffy, but she covered it mostly with makeup." He replied, and Stiles nodded. "Do you even know why she did it?"

"No idea. Other than the obvious fact that she likes frozen yogurt and I'm more of an ice cream kinda guy." Stiles laughed, and Scott gave a small smile but he could see right through it. Scott's smile faded, and Stiles' laugh turned to tears. Scott pulled him into a hug.

"I love her so much, Scott." Stiles sobbed into Scott's shirt, and Scott patted his back encouragingly.

"I know you do, Stiles. I'm gonna get Kira to talk to her, alright?" He said gently, and Stiles nodded. They sat like that for a while.

"We need to get to school. We have to go today because I have an AP Biology test, but tonight we're having a girls night, and we're ditching school tomorrow." Scott said, and Stiles sniffed and wiped away his tears.

"That sounds great." He laughs, a real laugh this time, and takes a few minutes to compose himself, before driving back to school.

He just had to survive this day.


	27. Back to School

**This is mostly just a filler, but the next few chapters will be good, I promise! (Also, I loved the new Teen Wolf episode!)**

* * *

School was even worse than he could've imagined. By the end of first period, he was ready to ditch.

People stared at him and gave him looks like he was completely evil. He understood why, of course, because if he really had cheated on Lydia, he would have deserved much worse.

But he didn't.

He just wanted to tell everyone in that school that he loved her so much and would never, ever do that to her, but A) no one would believe him, and B) it would ruin even a minor chance of him and Lydia ever being friends again, and he couldn't risk that.

He was headed to second period. His heart was beating fast, and it went even quicker as he pushed through the door, and saw her strawberry-blonde hair flowing down the back of her seat. He slipped in quickly, and sat down. He knew that she knew he was there, because she suddenly got stiff. Usually, on a normal day, she would turn around, and talk to him before class started. This time she was purposely ignoring him.

He couldn't believe that Friday, just three days ago, he was holding her hand, hugging her, kissing her. It all felt so surreal now. He finally went on a date with the girl he's in love with, and somehow he blew it. The worst part about is that he didn't even know what happened. Maybe if he just knew what he did, he could change it, and she would love him again. If only he knew.

Class was boring, like always. Mr. Fenton eyed them carefully because of what happened Friday, but Stiles guessed that he probably hadn't heard about their breakup. He must not be good at picking up any sort of social signals, either, because the uncomfort must be painfully obvious on both of their faces.

Funny how rumors traveled faster than the speed of light in this school, but somehow the teachers never heard any of them.

By the time class had ended, he still hadn't seen her face. He didn't want her to be able to see that he had been crying, and he was sure that she didn't want him to know that she had been crying, either.

He realized that she was probably crying over it all, because she lost him as a friend, too. Now it would be weird when the pack got together to brainstorm, and stay up late making a plan. He didn't want that, and apparently neither did she. Everything was ruined.

She leaned over and grabbed her purse, and he stood up. She glanced at him for a second, and he saw the bags under her eyes from lack of sleep. He knew she could see his too.

"Hey, Lyd." He muttered quietly. Even something as simple as 'hi' made his hands shake when it was Lydia he was talking to.

She bit her lip. She was nervous. She looked away, and walked out of the classroom like nothing had happened.

He ran after her, and grabbed her arm.

"Can we talk? Please." He begs, not even caring how stupid and emotional he might look right now. He could feel people staring, but his focus was on Lydia. She looked hesitant.

"About what?" She snapped, raising an eyebrow. It was the normal 'Lydia look', but her regular attitude wasn't fully supporting it. She looked exhausted just like him.

"Oh, you know, just the weather." He replied, throwing his hands in the air dramatically. Her lips quirked up into a half-smile for a fraction of a second, before she went back to frowning.

He missed making her smile. He missed that smile she gave him when he said something funny, and she was trying not to laugh. He missed when she would kiss him with those same lips. The slow, soft kisses, the fervent, passionate kisses, and the special kisses she gave when she pressed her lips to his neck and he could feel her sigh his name. He missed her smell, her taste, her hair, her skin, her sense of humor, her wit. He missed her.

He suddenly felt like he had a chance again. Just that small smile she gave sparked something in him. There was nothing in the world better than making Lydia smile.

"I have to get to class." She whispered, turned around, and left him standing there in an empty hallway as the bell rang for the second time. Lydia leaving him standing there alone seemed like a reoccurring event the past few weeks.


	28. Girls Night Part 2

**I wasn't going to update, but it's short so I figured I would anyway! Don't worry, I'll still update tomorrow too!**

* * *

"She'll be fine in a few days, Stiles. Maybe then you can talk to her about it." Scott says through the speaker on Stiles' phone.

"Yeah." Stiles gave an exaggerated sigh as he rolled over on his bed, burying his face in a pillow.

"But we aren't talking about it tonight! We're going to watch movies and have fun, okay?" Scott commanded, and Stiles smiled, and his nose started to hurt because it was pressed so hard against the pillow, so he sat up.

"Fine! Yeah, I won't say anything about it." He replied, laughing and rubbing his eye. "Hurry up and get here."

"I am! I'm just picking up a few things, then I'll be on my way. Kira will be over soon, too, okay?" Scott tells him, and Stiles mumbles an 'okay' and they say their goodbyes.

Stiles was actually the one who suggested Kira coming. Scott and Stiles were like the dynamic duo, but Scott, Stiles, and Kira were like the golden trio. They always had fun together, and even though Stiles was a sort of third wheel, they never made him feel that way. Plus, a girls night was never as fun without an actual girl, anyway.

Stiles moved his moping to downstairs, where he flopped down on the couch now instead of his bed. He had been getting too much sleep to fall asleep now, but that didn't stop him from laying there until Scott showed up.

"Pretending nothing happened isn't going to work, but neither is this!" Scott shouted, bouncing up and down on the end of the couch. Stiles heard the sound of a bag rustling, and he opened his eyes, trying not to smile.

"Fine, I'll get up, just stop jumping." Stiles whined, and sat upright.

"Great. Because I brought something." Scott grinned, got off the couch, picked up a bag, and dumped it's contents out on the coffee table. It had all kinds of candy, snacks, chips, and every other piece of junk food you could imagine. "Ice cream is already in the freezer, and there's chinese in the kitchen."

"Scott! You must have spent a fortune cookie on this!" Stiles smiled, and then shook his head. "Sorry, that was bad. But seriously! You shouldn't have done this for me."

"It doesn't matter! I got a raise at the vet anyway. I had some money put back, and this seemed like a good time to use it." He smiled, and Stiles stood up and hugged him. "Thanks, man."

"Hey, Stiles." Kira smiled at him like he was a lost puppy, as she came through his front door.

"Hey, Kira." He replies, and looks through the mounds of candy as Scott and Kira kiss. "Did you get a chance to talk to Lydia?"

"I'm sorry, Stiles, I tried. She wouldn't talk about it." She sighed, and sat down beside him.

"It's okay. Thanks for trying." He gives a weak smile, and she pats his back.

"Let's go eat. I'm starving." Scott beamed, like always.

"Me too." Stiles replied, and they all got up to eat food in the kitchen.

The night was fun. They stuffed their faces with junk food, played games, and watched movies. Kira ended up leaving at around 1:00 AM because she had to go to school the next day, but Scott and Stiles stayed up until around 3:00, and slept until noon. It was exactly what Stiles needed.


	29. Baby Steps

He saw Lydia at school every day, but they hadn't spoken or even made any social interaction in over a month.

He has been miserable. He couldn't show Scott that, though. Scott wouldn't be mad or anything, but he'd be worried about him. Stiles knew that he already had way too much on his plate, and he couldn't live with himself if he added onto it.

So he pretended he was fine. He had to show he was a little sad at times, or else Scott would definitely be suspicious, but he never went overboard. Well, he just never showed him how he really felt, more like.

He hadn't even been talking to him that much, anyway. The girls night was fun, but Scott was preoccupied with other things at the moment, and Stiles understood, but it was hard to be by yourself sometimes. Especially right now.

Liam always noticed. It actually made Stiles a little uncomfortable being around him sometimes, because Liam could read him like a book. He never pointed anything out in front of the pack, but he would look at Stiles while Scott was talking, and he could just tell he was in pain. It wasn't a superpower, he just observed and noticed. He even sent Stiles texts after school a few times on particularly bad days, and let him know that he was there for him if he needed to talk. It made him feel better.

In addition to all of these horrible things, he was also failing his English class. Not a big surprise, really, because he was too focused on Lydia to listen to anything that the teacher was saying. His dad had to sit down and talk to him, and Stiles agreed and said he would do better, but he hadn't even heard half of the things his dad had said.

He was restless and sick and tired of everything. He looked horrible and felt horrible, and he didn't know what to do. He had to talk to her.

"Hey." He gulped, giving a late smile.

"Hey, Stiles." She nodded, and turned back around. It wasn't much, but it made him feel alive again when he got his heart pumping like that. He always forgot how much of an effect she had on him.

He did that every single day in English class, and she would give that same nod, and say: 'hey, Stiles' back. It was becoming a habit.

Each day seemed like it was getting easier and easier. He saw her almost smiling once, but she quickly covered it up and turned around. It got to the point where all he cared about was English class. Those few seconds were the best of his whole day, and as soon as she turned around, he was already excited for the next day so he could speak to her again. Even on the weekend, time couldn't go fast enough. He was ready for school again. He was slowly getting happier and happier, because he had something to look forward to.

It had been a week and two days after he started saying 'hey', before he decided that it was time for the next step.

"Hey." He told her, like he normally did.

"Hey, Stiles." She nodded, and turned back around, like always.

"Um, I was thinking…" He spits out, his words running together. It felt weird. It was like they had this tradition going on, and he just ruined it. But he couldn't stay at this baby step forever if he wanted to be her friend again one day.

"Yeah?" She questions, turning back around to look at him. He had to remember to breathe, because it was so hard talking around Lydia. He had gotten mostly used to it when they were friends, but now he's forgotten how he ever did that. He felt like Alex from the movie theater right now; stuttering and blushing and sweating from just talking to her.

"Um, I just, you know. Well, I'm sort of, um, failing in English. I know you're pretty good, well, great at it, so I was just wondering if, you know…" He mumbles, having to dart his eyes away from hers.

"...If I can tutor you? Yeah, sure." She laughs, shrugging her shoulders. He couldn't believe it was this easy.

"R-Really?" His voice is hoarse, so he clears his throat. He hated the fact that she was so calm and collected all the time, and he was stuttering and mumbling and not doing anything right.

"Yeah. When do you want to start?" She asks, biting on the cap of her pen. He was staring at her lips. God, he was trying so hard, but he couldn't look away.

"Tonight's fine. If that's okay with you." He swallows thickly, finally looking up at her. Then the bell rang.

"I'll be at your house at six." She responded, and turned around to look at the teacher. He was smiling so big, and Kira smiled and gave him a thumbs-up.

He didn't pay attention in class today either, but this time wasn't because he was sad. It was because he was happy.

* * *

 **So happy they're finally (sort of) speaking again! I loved writing the next few chapters, and I can't wait for you all to read them!**


	30. Tutoring Session

"Scott, I'm freaking out. She'll be here soon, and I just...I don't think I can't do this." He gulped into the phone, as he paced around his living room. He had to breathe in and out deeply, and he had sweat accumulating on his hands that he had to constantly wipe off on his pants. Ten minutes left.

He had gotten home after school and thoroughly cleaned his house. He cleaned the living room, kitchen, bathroom, and his bedroom. He even ordered in pizza for dinner for when they studied, and then called Scott when he started to freak out.

"Just calm down, okay?" Scott replied through the speaker of the phone, as Stiles started to bite his nails. "And don't bite your nails."

"I wasn't!" Stiles answered quickly, too quickly, as he stopped biting them. "I swear worrying this much has to be taking, like, five years off of my life. It's not fair. She's always so calm and relaxed, and I'm over here about to have an anxiety attack by just thinking about her. "

He couldn't take the anticipation anymore. He sat down on the couch, and took a huge intake of breath. He felt sick, he was so nervous.

"You know, she's not as relaxed as she makes everyone think she is all the time." Scott tells him, and Stiles is about to ask why, because Scott can hear heartbeats, and he knows. But before he could ask, he heard a knock on the door.

"Oh God. I have to go, Scott. Wish me luck." He whispered, and Scott laughed as he told him bye, and that he would survive this.

He stood up, his heart racing, and fixed his shirt as he walked to the door. He breathed in again, and opened it.

It was the pizza man.

"Oh, hey." Stiles laughed awkwardly, and handed him his money. He gave him a tip, told him thanks, and walked over to the table and set the pizza on it. He put his hands on the table, and sighed really, really loudly; partly because he was relieved, but mostly because he had finally built up the courage to see her, and it was all for nothing.

He turned around to go close the door back, but there was Lydia, smiling in the doorway. He thought he was having a heart attack.

"I was hoping you had food." She laughed, and walked over to the table and sat down. He tried to speak, but nothing came out. "Are you going to eat? Or just stand there?" She laughs, and he lets out an awkward laugh too.

"Yeah. Sorry." He smiles, and reaches for a piece.

They talked about what had been going on in their lives, but didn't mention the breakup. He had missed the way that she would make him forget he was nervous. The way that he could be horribly anxious, but when they started to talk, it was just easy.

"So do you want to study in your room?" She asks, gathering her notebooks and bag, after wiping her hands off on a paper towel.

"Um, yeah, that's fine." He clears his throat, and leads the way upstairs to his bedroom. He was so glad that he decided to clean it.

"What exactly are you failing in? Have you been doing assignments?" She asks, sifting through her bag for her English notes.

"I didn't know we had any…" He rubs the back of his neck, and she sighs.

"Have you been paying attention at all? How are you doing okay in all of your classes except English?" She questions, furrowing her eyebrows with confusion. Then it seemed to click in her mind that it was because of her, and she instantly looked away. He didn't want her to think it was her fault, because it wasn't. It was entirely his.

He didn't really have another excuse, so they just sat there in silence.

"I'm sorry about the way I handled everything, Stiles." She bit her lip, and looked down at the blanket on his bed. "I shouldn't have done that to you. I still want us to be friends, you know?"

"Me too." He smiled, and his heartbeat picked up. Of course he wanted to be more than friends, but this was much better than he hoped would happen, and he was ecstatic. "I've really missed you, Lyd."

"I've missed you too." She laughed, and looked up at him. Their eyes locked, and he swallowed thickly. "I hope we can just put all of this stuff aside and be friends again. English just isn't the same without you whispering jokes about Mr. Fenton in my ear the whole time."

He laughed, and couldn't control the stupid smile on his face. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. God, remember that day that we pissed him off so bad when we kiss-" He started, but then cleared his throat. Of course he had to make it awkward.

She pretended she didn't hear it, as she found her notes.

"But yeah. I miss us hanging out too. You're the only one who can put up with my annoying sarcasm." He laughs, and looks over at her to make sure everything was still fine.

"Okay, good. We're friends again, then." She replied, smiling. She looked at him for a second, before shaking her head and looking down at her notebook. "Now let's get started, shall we?"

And they did. They covered all of the basic things he had missed the past couple of weeks, and he tried really, really hard to pay attention. He mostly did, but it was hard to do sometimes when Lydia was concentrating and biting at the edge of her pencil. He had to remind himself that they weren't together, and staring at her like this wasn't okay at all.

"So all good? We'll go over some more tomorrow night if that's okay with you…?" She questions, holding her books to her chest.

"Yeah, thank you so much, Lyd. You're really great at teaching, you know. I actually understand now, which is a miracle. My dad will be so happy." He grinned, and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"I'm glad I can help. Really. College would suck knowing that you're still in your senior year of high school." She laughed, poking his shoulder. He tried to keep calm, but he felt like he was back in sophomore year, falling head-over-heels for the Lydia Martin that finally noticed he existed.

"Hey, uh, do I need to pay you?" He asks, digging in his pocket to find his wallet.

"No!" She laughs, shaking her head. "Besides, you bought pizza. I want to help, anyway."

"Thanks." He smiles dumbly, completely fawning over her. He hoped she didn't notice it, because it was hard to control.

"See you tomorrow?" She asks, as she slowly walks backwards to her car.

"Yeah. See you tomorrow." He smiles, and waves at her as she leaves.

He laid on the floor for twenty minutes after that, grinning up at the ceiling. He couldn't wait for tomorrow.


	31. Support

**I think I'm going to update on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays now! There's not many chapters left of the story though, so I really hope you like these!**

* * *

The next day was amazing. They were talking again. It was slow and steady; they weren't rushing back into being friends, but that was more than enough to please Stiles. He was back to talking to Lydia, his grades were coming up, and he was keeping in contact with Malia. He didn't want to jinx it, but he couldn't believe how well everything was going the past few days.

He and Lydia talked a little before class, and even a small bit after, before they had to part ways.

Not only that, but people seeing them talking and laughing together stopped most of the rumors that had been circling through school. Things were finally starting to get back to normal, and he vowed to never, ever take that for granted again.

Days went by, and they started hanging out more and more. Not for fun, really, but they would take turns going over to each others houses to study. He loved it. He had even got an A- on his last test, which brought his grades up a lot, and they celebrated by going to a restaurant and getting sundaes. He felt alive again when he got to see Lydia, and talk to her more. Everything had been grey, but she brought the color back into his life.

One day she offered to help him bring up his grades in all of his subjects, not just English, if he wanted. He said yes, of course, secretly as a way to spend more time with her. He wasn't ready to give up on their study days yet, plus it was educational. A win-win.

They had been studying a lot more for math, because an exam was coming up, and there was a section that he just couldn't grasp. They studied all week, and finally it was Thursday, the night before the big test.

"Ready to cram? I brought some support." Lydia smiles as she walks into his room, holding a bag. She didn't even bother to knock anymore. He told her to let herself in one day because he was showering, and it was now a habit. A great habit.

"What is it?" He grins, sitting up higher in his bed to get a peek. She tipped the bag over on his bed, and probably about ten energy drinks fell out. She smiled at him mischievously, and bit her lip.

He had to keep reminding himself to be careful. He told himself he wouldn't fall back into this never ending cycle of loving her, and getting hurt because of it. It was so hard not to fall back into it, though, when she would burst into his room, smiling that signature Lydia Martin smile that all the boys at school fell in love with, and looking at Stiles with those beautiful eyes that would make him drop everything for if that's what she wanted. It was already too late and he knew it. He may be falling even deeper in love with her, but he was going to stay in denial of that for as long as he possibly could.

"Jesus, Lydia!" He laughs, crawling across the bed to look at them. "Do you really think we're going to need all of these?"

"I got here late, and we still have a lot to cover! Plus, if we have any leftovers, they'll be nice in the morning." She replies, popping one open and handing it to him. "Now drink it. You're going to need it."

And he did. It was probably thirty minutes before either of them felt anything, but then it hit them both like a brick wall. Their hands were shaking and they were laughing uncontrollably, but in other words, they were getting absolutely no work done. They even had to run up and down his street a few times because they felt like they were going to burst with energy.

Finally, in the middle of them trying to find something to eat in the kitchen, it wore away.

"I feel the crash coming." Lydia complained, knocking her head against a cabinet. "We haven't even done barely any work!"

"Let's just drink another. No matter how hyped we get, we have to focus, though, okay?" He questions, and she nods.

"Let's do it." She smiles, and they both head upstairs to open another can.


	32. Awake

He was still half asleep, with that weird sensation of partly dreaming, and partly trying to wake up ringing in the back of his mind. The sun was in his eyes, his arm was completely numb, and he was laying on something that dug into his back, so he started to shift. He moved slightly, but felt something, or _someone_ , on his arm. That definitely woke him up.

He opened his eyes, slightly in a panic, before he saw her. There was Lydia, with her head on his chest, and her arm splayed across his stomach. His arm was around her waist, he realized, and that must be why it was so numb.

There were papers everywhere; on his floor, on the bed, and he was even laying on a few. He reached back, and grabbed the folder that had been jabbing his spine, and quietly set it on his nightstand so he wouldn't wake her.

He remembered that they had drunk their fourth energy drink, and the crash from that must have finally knocked them both out, before they could even put a blanket over themselves, or clear all of the notes off of his bed.

She was sound asleep; the low humming of her breathing was vibrating against his heart. Her legs were tangled with his, and her skin was cold since they had fallen asleep without the blanket. He looked at her, with her cheeks pink and her lips parted slightly. His heart started to beat quickly, like it always did when he was around her.

No, no, no. This couldn't be happening. As soon as he would start realizing that they would only ever be friends, something like this always occurred. It was like they were meant to be, because every time he finally accepted it, there was a sign that he shouldn't give up. The problem was, though, that it always lead to the same heart-breaking realization.

It actually hurt him to think about how this could be his life one day, in an alternate world where him and Lydia would end up together. They would get home from work, and watch a movie and laugh until they fell asleep holding each other, because they were in love. They wouldn't have to go out and do something every night, because just being together was more than enough. He hated himself for imagining that.

His alarm clock started beeping. He had figured he was already late for school, but he must have actually woken up early. He didn't want it to wake Lydia, so he quickly slammed his fist on the 'off' button. But, like everything else Stiles did, it went wrong.

After slamming the button loudly, the alarm clock jerked from the wall socket, and pulled his lamp down with it, making them both crash to the floor. He sighed, and rolled his eyes with annoyance.

Lydia didn't say anything. He faked a yawn so she wouldn't know that he had been, now that he realized it, creepily staring at her while she slept.

She stretched and yawned, scratching her fingers against his stomach, before opening her eyes. They quickly widened when she realized that they had slept together, and it was him that she had been cuddling up to. She sat up and put her hand to her head, squinting her eyes at the sudden sunlight.

She looked at him with a confused look for a second, and he had never wanted to kiss her this much in his life. Her hair was messy and knotted in places, and she had an imprint on her face that was caused from her laying on an overlap on his shirt. She looked so beautiful, and he could barely contain himself. He stared at her lips, and sat up too.

"Um. I need to use the bathroom." She whispered, pressing her hand to her forehead. He nodded his head, and she didn't say anything else before she got up, and walked out.

He waited, and waited, and waited. It was probably ten minutes, before he decided to just get up and get ready for school. She had probably quietly snuck out of the house so she didn't have to face him again, and he sighed thinking about it.

He was sad, of course, because they had just started getting close again, but he's tried everything, and something always ruins it. He didn't know what else to do.

He took his pants off, changed into a different pair, and then stripped his shirt off.

"Nice strip show." Her hears her behind him, laughing.

"Oh! Sorry, I thought you left or…something." He jumps, and hurriedly pulls his shirt over his head.

"Left?" She asks, narrowing her eyes at him when he turns around.

"Um. Nevermind." He laughs, and scratches the back of his neck.

"I'm sorry about last night. Those stupid energy drinks ruined everything." She sighs, looking at the floor.

"No, it was fun. I've been stressed about it, so that was probably exactly what I needed to relax." He smiles, trying to calm his nerves.

"You'll do great." She laughs, leaning against the doorway.

"Wow." He gulped, finally really looking at her. She had put her hair up in a high ponytail, with some loose curls tucked behind her ear. She was wearing the same outfit as yesterday, but had completely re-styled it. "I mean, uh, how did you do that?"

"Talent." She replied smugly, and shrugged her shoulders. He was smiling stupidly at her, but when he realized, he immediately cleared his throat.

"I need some of that," He laughed, looking down at the same outfit he pretty much wears every day. Then his eyes widened. "I mean, I, um, need some talent. I wasn't saying I needed some of you. That would just be...weird." He gulps, realizing he's said way too much already, and should just shut up. He wanted to scream.

"Sure, Stiles." She whispered, smirking and narrowing her eyes. He felt like his knees were about to give out, as he swallowed thickly.

"Come on, Lyd, I'm serious." He laughed, but his nerves were on edge. She grabbed her bag, and walked up to him. She looked up at him, with that face that could have made him fall to his knees. He wondered what would happen if he just held her, and kissed her right now.

She reached up, and ran her thumb across his lips. His breathing caught in his throat, and he was sure she was going to kiss him. God, he really wanted her to, because he didn't have the guts to make the first move.

"You have some dried drool on your face." She laughs, and he exhales.

"Oh." He tries to laugh, but he can't. He was so disappointed. "Thanks."

"No problem. Can I just ride with you to school?" She asks, giving a small smile. "I need to come back after and clean up this mess anyway, since I don't have time now."

"Yeah! Yeah, sure, that's fine. It's only a small fee of $20!" He laughs awkwardly, and she smiles and shakes her head. As soon as she turns around, he silently groans, and rubs the bridge of his nose from pure embarrassment. He usually was really good with his wit, but it wasn't so great around Lydia anymore.

"Come on, we're going to be late!" She yells from downstairs a minute later, snapping him out of his thoughts. He grabs his backpack, and sprints downstairs. She's waiting there with a bagel for them both, smiling.


	33. Test Results

It was two days after he had taken the test, and he burst through the classroom door to the hallway, smiling after his last class, because he could finally tell Lydia the good news. He paced back and forth outside of Lydia's classroom, barely able to contain his excitement as he waited for her to be released from her last class of the day.

They hadn't hung out since that night three days ago, and he had only seen her in English class since then. It was horrible, but he had been anxiously waiting for his test results so that he would have a reason to talk to her again.

The test was pretty hard, but Lydia was an amazing tutor. She had explained everything perfectly, and just about every single question that was on the sheet, he could remember her teaching him. That had been the first time he actually felt confident while taking a test.

Lydia was digging in her bag as she walked out of the classroom, before he pulled her out of the line of people coming out. She looked up, shocked by the sudden contact, before seeing it was Stiles.

"Ninety-four." He smiles, and she smiles too, but narrows her eyes.

"Ninety-four?" She asked, obviously confused.

"My math test! I got a freakin' ninety-four!" He exclaims, overly joyed.

"Ninety-four!" She replied, raising her voice cheerfully. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and she squealed as he picked her up and twirled her around.

There was only a few other people in the hallway now, because everyone always rushed to leave when their classes were over. His stomach had butterflies, because he could feel her smiling against his neck, and hugging him tightly. He was so happy that he had gotten a good score, because all of that work was worth this one moment.

"I'm so proud of you, Stiles." She smiles brightly, as he sets her back down on the floor. "I really am."

"I couldn't have done it without you." He pants, looking in her eyes. "You're so smart. Thank you."

Her dimples were showing, and her eyes were looking into his, while she rubbed her thumb against the back of his neck. He felt like the world was spinning rapidly around them, and they were the only two things standing in place.

"It's...no problem. Really." She replies quietly, and her hand is now cupping his face, as she stroked her thumb slowly against his cheekbone. Her eyes were looking between his, and he felt that horribly-amazing feeling in his stomach that he always got when they were about to kiss.

She looked down at his lips, and parted hers so she could control her heavy breathing. She was just staring at his mouth, and it was too much for him to handle. If she didn't kiss him right now, he was just going to make the first move. He didn't care how terrified he was.

"Lyd." He whispered hoarsely. His hands were shaking at the small of her back, and she quietly took an intake of breath. She bit her lip as she stared at his, and he leaned forward.

He couldn't believe this was happening. It had been months after their breakup, and here they are again, going around in another circle. He loved her so much, and if they kissed again, he knew he would never get over her until the day he died. He couldn't care about that right now, though, because his face was only inches away from hers.

He leaned in closer and closer, until their lips were just about to touch. It hadn't even happened yet, but fireworks were already going off behind his eyelids.

Then they heard the sound of sneakers suddenly squeaking to a stop against the floor.

They broke away from each other, but it was still so intense. She backed away and gulped, and then turned to Scott and smiled. He didn't understand how she could do that.

"Am I...interrupting something?" Scott asks, looking between them and grinning. He has never wanted to punch Scott, but if he did, it would be right now.

"What? No." Lydia laughs, which basically feels like she just stabbed Stiles in the heart. "We were just hugging because he got a really great score on his math test."

"Oh, okay. Well I was just wondering where you were at, Stiles. I was going to invite you over, but I'm sure you'll want to tell your dad the good news and everything. Well I'll see you later!" He tells them, and 'secretly' gives Stiles a thumbs-up as he leaves.

Lydia wasn't stupid at all. She knew that just because she broke up with Stiles, didn't mean that his crush since third grade wouldn't just go away. It was embarrassing, though, because Scott has never been great at being subtle.

He was hoping so much that Lydia would want to start back up what had just ended, but when he looked at her, he knew that wasn't going to happen. She was biting her nails like she had just figured out that the world was ending in an hour.

"I should go too, Stiles." She bites her lip, and he can't believe he was about to kiss them just a few minutes ago. He wanted to now, but he was too much of a coward. He wished he could be as brave as her sometimes.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. See you Monday." He smiled, trying not to look disappointed, but he knew she could see right through his facade. "Wait! I drove you here. Do you want me to take you home?"

She stopped to think about it, but he already knew the answer.

"I'm okay. I'll get a ride." She half-smiled, and then walked out.


	34. Ride

"Scott! Wait!" Stiles yelled, running across the parking lot as Scott was backing up on his motorcycle. He finally reached him, and Scott stopped and took his helmet off. Stiles had to bend over and put his hands on his knees, so he could catch his breath.

"Why are you out here?! Why aren't you inside kissing Lydia?" Scott asks, and Stiles rolls his eyes.

"Because of you! We didn't even get to kiss because you interrupted right as we were about to." Stiles groans, and sits down on the asphalt.

"I swear I didn't mean to do that." Scott replied, obviously feeling bad. Then Stiles felt bad that Scott felt bad.

"I know. Sorry." He sighed, shaking his head. "I just don't get this. She broke up with me!"

"I don't get it either, Stiles. But I do know one thing," Scott answered, a smile starting to form on his face.

"What?" Stiles asks, leaning his body in closer.

"You know how you said she was always calm and collected?" Scott smiles, and Stiles nods, desperate to find out what he knows. "Well she isn't."

"How do you know?" Stiles questions, suddenly desperate for answers.

"Because when I walked in there, her heart was beating even faster than yours." He smiled, already knowing what Stiles' reaction would be.

"What?! Are you sure you weren't getting them mixed up or something? Maybe it was mine. It had to have been mine." He swallowed thickly, and ran his fingers through his hair. Scott shook his head. "What does that mean, then?"

Scott quickly glanced up, and Stiles turned around to look, but he couldn't see anything.

"Good luck!" Scott grinned, and took off on his motorcycle quickly. Stiles immediately stood up and brushed his pants off, because he already knew that Scott had heard Lydia coming.

"Stiles!" Lydia yelled across the parking lot, waving him down. They walked towards each other, and she pressed the back of her hand to her forehead, laughing. Finally they got close, and he laughed, too. He still didn't know what to think about what Scott had told him, but he tried to forget about it now, so he could maybe get through this conversation without passing out. "I was hoping you hadn't left yet."

"Oh yeah?" He smiled, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Need something?"

"Yeah. A ride." She laughs, shaking her head. "I need my car and I don't really have another way to get over there if I go home. I didn't really think about that when I told you I didn't need a ride."

"Sure! No problem." He nods, and hopes she can't see that he's scared to death. Scared of the awkward silence in the car, scared of what could possibly happen at his house, scared that she doesn't actually like him, and he was just getting his hopes up.

"Thanks." She smiled at him, and that intensity from earlier was still there. He knew he should move, but she had some kind of pull on him that he couldn't understand. It was hard to even think when he was looking at her.

He was thinking about what Scott said. Did it mean that she _did_ like him? He was so confused, and he didn't know what to do about it.

"Stiles." She snapped in his face, laughing.

"Sorry. I was just thinking about something." He shook his head laughing, and they walked to his Jeep.

* * *

 **Okay, so this one isn't very long. I have decided to do something special though for the end of the story, so I will be updating Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with the last three chapters!**


	35. The Fight

"I need to come in and get my notes, too." She tells him, as she buckles her seatbelt with a click. "So do you have any plans for this weekend?"

"No. As usual." He laughs, making a turn and glancing over at her. "What about you?"

"Probably not." She laughs too, and looks out the window. "I've laid off of partying lately if you haven't noticed."

"I have." He replies, looking ahead at the road. Of course he did. He noticed everything she did.

A few minutes passed in silence.

"So what were you thinking about earlier?" Lydia asks curiously, as she applies lip gloss in the mirror, which almost makes him wreck.

"Nothing important." He laughed, trying not to sound weird. He made himself focus on the road, and nothing else.

"Come on, I want to know! I won't tell anyone, I promise." She whispered and laughed, nudging his arm with hers, which made electricity shoot through his body. He wondered if she could feel that too.

"It was nothing, really." He tells her as he pulls up to his house and gets out, but she still tries to keep the conversation going.

"It had to be something pretty good for you to zone out for more than a minute." She insisted, and he was silent as they went upstairs. She laid on his bed and raised her eyebrows, looking at him expectedly.

"Shouldn't you be getting your stuff?" He asks, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms.

"Don't change the subject!" She smiles, and props her chin on her hand. "Just tell me what you were thinking about."

"What are _you_ thinking about?" He asks, trying to take the heat off of himself.

"I'll tell you if you tell me." She gives a small smile, and sits up to face him. He sat down on the edge of the bed, and looked at her.

"You really want to know what I'm thinking about?" He asks, staring in her eyes. He was serious now, and she knew it. For maybe the third time in his entire life, he saw Lydia blush. She wasn't embarrassed by much, but the atmosphere had just gotten severely filled with tension, and if he wasn't so serious right now, he knew for sure that he would be blushing too.

"Yeah." She replies, looking in his eyes. "Yeah, I do."

"I was thinking about how I really, really wanted to kiss you a little while ago." He whispers, swallowing thickly. "And how I still really want to right now."

"Oh." She looks away, avoiding eye contact. He knew that she had to have been expecting that.

"I'm also thinking about how Scott told me that when he walked in, he could hear your heart beating even faster than mine was." He answered, not holding back from anything right now. He was tired of pretending like there was nothing between them.

"What?" She asks, suddenly taking up an offense. She backed away from him, and laughed bitterly. "Scott lied to you, Stiles."

"Why would he do that? I finally stopped crying over you, Lydia, do you really think Scott would lie to me about something like that, and make me hurt even more when I realized it wasn't true?" He questions, and she clenched her jaw.

"So what? What do you think is going to happen? I don't feel anything for you, Stiles. You're my friend, and that's it. That's all we'll ever be. I don't know how many times I'm going to have to tell you that." Her voice shook, because she was filled with so many emotions so quickly.

"How am I supposed to believe that?! You broke my heart, and I spent months getting over you, and trying to get that through my head. But then you come back around and spend so much time with me, and almost kiss me." He lets out a long breath, and she pushes her lips together and looks away. "If you want to really make me believe it, you'd just leave me alone. I don't get it, okay? It's not alright for you to just come back into my life, pretending like nothing happened, pretending like you didn't break my heart! Maybe you can switch your feelings off, but I can't! You have to understand how bad this hurts me. It's not fair that you can just come back and pretend it didn't happen. It's not fair to me."

"I wasn't meaning to hurt you, Stiles, okay? I want to be your friend still, I can't live without you! I just don't know how to make it okay again. I don't know how to make us okay again." She whispers, and looks at the floor.

"You...I mean we can't do what we did earlier." He replies, rubbing the back of his neck.

"But it was just a kiss! Not even that, really, because it didn't even _actually_ happen!" She raises her voice slightly, and he looks out the window. "It was just...just a heat of the moment kind of thing, okay?"

"You know it wasn't just that! Not for me! It will never be just a kiss for me, Lydia. How can you not understand that?" He replies, glancing at her. He looked in her eyes, and she stands up and puts her face in her hands.

"You have to stop looking at me like that! You've been doing it every day, and I can't freaking take it. Just stop looking at me like that!" She exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air with exasperation.

"Look at you like what?!" He asks loudly, standing up too.

"Like...God, like you're in love with me!" She finally gets out, frustrated. He hesitated a second.

"Maybe it's because I _am_ in love with you!" He answers, and she looks at him sadly, and then covers half of her face with her hand.

"Don't say that." She gulps, and shakes her head as she backs away. "Don't tell me that, Stiles."

"It's true! All you wanted was for me to tell you what I was thinking, and I finally am. I'm completely in love with you, Lydia. Stupidly, selfishly, completely in love with you. Just because you don't love me back doesn't mean it can just go away." He admits, looking in her eyes pleadingly. Tears well up in hers, and she bites her lip.

"I don't feel that way for you. I just don't. I never will." She wipes her tears away, and then crosses her arms.

"You just seemed like you did when we were dating. It was so believable. I don't get it." He shakes his head, completely in denial.

"I just realized that I couldn't be with you, Stiles! I don't want to be with you. Just get it through your head, okay? It will make it a lot easier when you do." She crosses her arms, and he furrows his eyebrows.

"How the hell am I supposed to get that through my head after what happened earlier? And when we fell asleep together the other day? How do you expect me to just drop my feelings for you after all of that?" He exclaims, feeling more hurt than ever.

"It means nothing! None of it!" She replies loudly, but he doesn't back down just yet.

"Prove it, then! If you don't feel anything for me, then just prove it. Prove there's nothing between us." He replies calmly. He said it bravely, but he was really, really hoping that she wouldn't prove it.

She looked at him. Silence. Silence. Silence. The tension between them was unbearable.

Before he could even process what was happening, she was kissing him. It was one, gentle kiss. Her lips were warm and soft and sweet, and he could taste her strawberry lipgloss. He could smell her perfume, too, and it was driving him absolutely crazy. He was dizzy, but he was holding onto her.

"See?" She whispered hoarsely, and he was just standing there, speechless. They looked at each other for a second, before she kissed him again; this time even quicker. "Nothing. I feel nothing for you. Absolutely nothing."

All he could do was look at her. His body was frozen. He had forgotten what kissing her was like, and how paralyzingly life-changing it could be.

He glanced between her eyes, and then down to her mouth again, breathing heavily. Right as he looked back in her eyes, she had already grabbed his face in her hands. She pressed her lips against his, and he instantly wrapped one of his arms tightly around her waist, and wound his other hand in her hair.

She whimpered against his lips as she ran her fingers through his hair; neither being able to get enough of each other. They were scratching at each others skin, and their breathing was shallow.

When the kiss deepened, her mouth tasted like sweet peppermint. He could hear the pounding of his heart in his ears, as she started to moan softly against his lips.

He pulled her to the bed, and kissed up her neck as he hovered on top of her. Her hands were gripping roughly at his sheets, as she arched her back. It wasn't long before she pulled his face back up so she could kiss him again.

Both of their breathing was heavy and uneven, as she tugged at the hem of his shirt. He helped her take it off, and she pulled him back down to her and sunk her nails in his back, gasping between kisses.

He knew this was going too far. He had worked so, so hard to get over Lydia, and it was already too late to go back and stop this. He didn't know exactly what any of this meant, but he loved her. Even if there was a good chance that she was just using him.

"Stiles," She pants as she licks her lips, looking up at him with pleading eyes. She uses her shaking hand to find his, and she laced their fingers together. "I've never wanted someone this bad in my whole life. Please, Stiles. I want you."

* * *

 **Ahhhh! I've been dying to post this chapter! Like I said, I'll be updating tomorrow and Sunday too!**


	36. Revelation

He woke up to the sound of the floor creaking. His eyes shot open, and there was Lydia, wrapped up in his sheet with a pile of clothes in her arms, looking like a deer caught in headlights. Suddenly the memories from last night flooded his mind.

She sighed, and closed her eyes, knowing this was going to hurt him worse than anything she had ever done in the past. It wasn't long before he realized what was going on, and he put his face in his hands.

"I can't believe I was stupid enough to think you cared about me." He laughed weakly, feeling tears sting the back of his eyes.

"I do care about you!" She was already crying now too, and his jaw clenched so he could try and hold it together.

"My God, Lydia, do you realize that last night was the best night of my entire life? And you don't even feel anything. I thought it would have changed things for us. I should have known." He glanced up at her, and she looked away.

He was sick. He thought last night had been different for them, for their relationship. He knew that he had just made the worst mistake of his life, and it was too late to change it.

"It was the best night of my life too." She replies, wiping her tears away.

"Then why would you try and sneak out while I'm sleeping? Were you just going to pretend it never happened, and talk to me about the weather when we have to see each other in class every day?!" His voice cracks, and she sobs. "I'm sorry. I don't want to make you cry. I just don't get this, I guess. You say you love me, and then break up with me. You spend time with me, have sex with me, and then try to leave me again. God, I was just getting over you, Lyd. I didn't think I was going to make it through those months, but I finally did, and now I'm even worse off than I started. Way worse."

"I...I didn't mean for this to happen." She whispered, as she whimpered into her hands.

"You have to stay away from me, Lydia. No more tutoring, no more hanging out, and I'm going to ask if I can switch classes. I'm not blaming you, because it's just as much my fault. I should have known better than to start hanging out with you again, because I know…" He started to say, but then he stopped. "I have to stay away. It's for the best."

"No! I don't want that. Please, Stiles." She begged, and tears were streaking her face. "Please."

"This is unfair! I can't win either way! I want to be with you, but you don't feel that way for me. That's fine, so I start trying to be your friend again. Then you have sex with me, and you want to tell me now that it doesn't mean anything, and I should forget about it and just be your friend again?! How could I possibly do that?"

"I promised myself that when I broke up with you, I'd stay away." She turned away so she wouldn't have to look at him.

"What does that mean?" He questions, completely confused.

"God, Stiles, how can you not see?!" She stands up, and drops the sheet so she can put her bra on. Yeah, a naked Lydia was in front of him, but he was too heartbroken to even care. He puts on his boxers too, and stands up.

"See what?!" He follows her as she picks up her clothes, only to drop them on the bed again when she turned around to look at him.

"That I'm in love with you too, Stiles! Do you know how bad this has been killing me?!" She asks, biting her lip to hold back her sobs. He doesn't know what to say.

"What?" He whispers, trying to make sense of it all.

"I broke up with you because I was falling too deeply in love with you." She shakes her head, trying to get out the right words. "I mean I just...I've never been in love before you. I thought I loved Jackson, but that was nothing compared to this, Stiles.

When we were in the car and you were telling me about how you loved me since the third grade, I kept thinking about Aiden, and Jackson, and Alison. Everyone who loves me gets hurt. Death is all around me, and I couldn't risk that with you. I just suddenly got so scared. I ran inside, and thought about it all weekend. I thought about how one day when you were off at college, you would meet a girl. You would forget about me, and all of this supernatural stuff, and leave it in your highschool years as you made a family. You're human, Stiles. You can get away from all of this. You can have a normal life, and I realized that that's all I want for you. If we ended up together, you would never be able to get away from it. I knew I had to push you away, or else I would get too close, and you would be tied down with this for the rest of your life.

I love you so, so much, and I never wanted to hurt you, I promise. I was miserable too for those months. I tried so hard to stay away from you, so you could just forget about me someday, but I couldn't. When you said hey to me that day in class, I knew it was already too late, and my plan was ruined. I couldn't stay away as hard as I tried. I attempted to fight my feelings, but you would look at me in that way, and I would just start right back where I was before. It wasn't fair, because I was trying to help you, but I was really just hurting you. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I was just so lost.

Last night...I wasn't planning that. I was trying to tell you that I would never feel something for you so you would just get over me! But you wouldn't listen. You're so stupid, Stiles, why can't you listen?! I didn't want to leave you this morning, but I didn't know what else to do! That's all I've ever known. Guys would get what they want, and they would leave. I just thought I was doing you a favor by making it all easier. Leaving you alone would just make it easier for you.

This is our last year of high school, Stiles. You just have to get through this, and then you'll forget about me. You'll love someone else one day."

"I don't want to fall in love with someone else! I can't even imagine that, and I don't want to! I only want you! I want a family with you, Lydia, not some fictional girl from college that I will never love as much as I love you. I want you, only you, forever. That's all I've ever wanted." He pours his heart out, and she pushes her lips together as she sobs silently, and looks at the floor. "I want to be by your side through all of this. I want to do all of this with you, I don't care who's human and who's not. This isn't some temporary thing that can just go away when I meet another girl at college. It will always be you, no matter what we have to go through to be together. Fighting off stupid monsters seems like nothing right now. I'm so in love with you, Lyd."

"I love you too, Stiles. I'm so sorry I hurt you." She choked, and wrapped her arms around him. He closed his eyes and held her tighter.

When they finally pulled away and kissed each other, it tasted like salty tears. Neither cared, though, they were just happy to finally be together. For good.

* * *

 **So this is the last chapter! I really hope you liked it! I will still be posting the epilogue tomorrow, so don't go anywhere yet!**


	37. Epilogue

"Good morning," Stiles smiled and yawned, brushing hair away from Lydia's face.

"Mmm, good morning." She sighed, with her eyes still closed. She smiled even bigger when she opened her eyes and saw him. "Graduation today."

"I know. I'm so freakin' nervous." He laughed, and she sat up and stretched. She slipped on his shirt that was about three sizes too big for her, and wrapped her arms around him.

It had been a little over five months since they've been together, and neither have ever been happier. They studied together even more now, drove to school together, and she usually slept over at his house. He knew that his dad would always know if he snuck out at night to see her, but her mom would never notice when she did. When they figured that out, it became a routine for her to come over at exactly 11:35 every night, and sneak through his window. Then in the morning, she would sneak back to her house before her mom woke up, get ready, and he would pick her up for school thirty minutes later.

"Don't be. Everyone will be there to support you, including me." She smiles, and leans in to kiss him. His heart beat quickened, and he knew that even after a lifetime of being with her, that would never go away.

He wasn't smart enough to get into the college that she did, but they had found one about two hours away from hers with the classes he wanted. It sucked that it was two hours, but they promised to alternate staying with each other on the weekends, and help each other with homework. What that really meant, though, was _her_ helping _him_ with homework.

"I wish my mom could be there." He looked down at their hands intertwined, and swallowed thickly.

"I know. She would be so proud of you." Lydia smiled, and kissed the back of his hand. "I am too."

"I love you." He sighed, staring at her. He loved the way that her hair was always messy in the mornings, and how her smile always looked so much goofier. He loved every single thing about her.

"I love you too, Stiles." She replies, and takes her hand out of his, so she can hold his face while she kisses him.

"My dad's coming! Oh shit." Stiles pulls away and whispers, as he hears his dad climbing the stairs. Lydia curses under her breath, grabs her clothes off the floor, and silently runs across his room. She knows she won't make it out the window in time, so she hides in his closet. Right as she makes it in, his dad opens his door.

"Hey." His dad smiles, slowly walking into his room with a coffee mug in his hands. Stiles was obviously terrified, and he knew he looked suspicious, but he couldn't help it.

"Hi, Dad." He clears his throat, and he knows Lydia is rolling her eyes right now.

"Why are you up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep. I was too nervous." He replies, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I understand. I remember the day I graduated." He laughed, and Stiles gave back an awkward laugh. "I'm really proud of you, son."

"Thanks, dad." He was breathing heavily, and his dad had to have noticed by now. It was impossible not to.

"Did I interrupt something?" His dad questions, narrowing his eyes. They had been caught. He must have heard them talking, and now he would be grounded for the rest of his life. "Some...private time, maybe?"

"Wha-" He starts to say, but then his eyes widen with realization. "Oh Dad. No. No! No, it wasn't...that. Just...no."

He was completely embarrassed that Lydia heard that, and he could feel his face turn bright red.

"I was just making sure! You know, it wouldn't be the first time I walked in on y-" He starts, but then they hear a snicker. From the closet. His dad's smile faded as he heard it, and he sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Lydia...how about you come out of the closet."

She stepped out with only Stiles' big shirt on, looking at the floor with shame. His dad turned, and stared at him.

"Lydia?! How did you get in there? This is crazy!" Stiles laughed, and both Lydia and his dad groaned.

"Cut the crap, Stiles." The sheriff said, rolling his eyes.

"Sorry Mr. Stilinski." Lydia states quietly, and tugs at the bottom of the shirt which stops at her mid-thigh.

"Put some clothes on, please, miss Lydia. I'm going to have to notify your mom about this, so I would suggest you get home."

"Yes sir." She replies timidly, and takes her clothes to the bathroom. They stay silent until they hear her shut the door.

"Stiles...really?" His dad says, looking like he's about to pull his hair out.

"Sorry dad. She was trying to calm my nerves."

"There are really some things that parents just don't need to know." He sighs, and Stiles' face turns red for about the tenth time just this morning.

"Not like that! I was just really scared, okay? I'm sorry." He tells him, and Lydia walks back in, wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. She looks nervous, as she grabs her purse.

"I'm going home. I'll see you both at graduation tonight. Sorry again, Mr. Stilinski." She mutters, and hurriedly walks out.

"Won't happen again dad!" Stiles rushes to put his sweatpants on, and runs downstairs to catch her.

"That was...humiliating." She laughs, as he gets in the passenger seat of her car.

"It's fine, Lyd. Seriously." He smiles, and leans in to kiss her.

"I really need to go Stiles." She pulls away a minute later, sighing. "Your dad's probably on the phone with her right now, and it will be ten times worse if I'm not home when she freaks out."

"Good thing it's graduation day. We basically have immunity, because they're too sad that we're leaving soon to be mad for long." He laughs, and pulls her to him to kiss her again.

"You have a good point." She smiles, and wraps her arms around his neck.

* * *

Graduation was great. All of his friends were there. His mom wasn't there of course, but Melissa was, and that was more than enough for him. When they all threw their caps in the air, he was sure he even caught a glimpse of his dad and Melissa kissing. He wasn't really surprised.

They were all sad to say goodbye to Liam when they left for college, but promised to keep in contact. Liam, Brett, Hayden, and Mason were the new pack protecting Beacon Hills now, and they all had a Skype call going with Scott, Kira, Stiles, and Lydia when they needed help with something. They weren't scared to leave it in their hands, because they knew they would take care of it.

There wasn't a day that went by that Scott and Stiles didn't talk to each other. They would either call or text every day. Scott and Kira were as inseparable as ever.

As for Stiles and Lydia, they kept to their promise of seeing each other every single weekend. He got through the week just by looking forward to seeing her. He had trouble with a few of his classes, and Lydia was always there to explain it in the simplest way.

After college, they moved in together. Scott and Kira lived an hour away, and they all got together on the weekends. Scott eventually ran his own veterinary clinic.

The month after Stiles turned twenty-four, he proposed to Lydia. Eight months later they were married. Scott was Stiles' best man, and Kira was Lydia's maid of honor. Lydia cried as she said 'I do'. Stiles cried the whole time.

She went on to win a fields medal, like she said she would when he took her to the dance back in Sophomore year.

She was twenty-eight when she walked in the bedroom, crying with excitement when her pregnancy test came back positive. She was thirty-two when it happened again.

He always looked back at the times in high school. He even thought about the hair clip she always wore in third grade. Every night when they were falling asleep together, she would whisper: 'I'm glad you didn't give up'.

She still had problems with hearing things sometimes, but whenever she woke up screaming from a nightmare, Stiles was always there to bring her back. It took a long time, but eventually they went away.

It didn't matter how old they got, not even when her strawberry-blonde hair dulled to gray, because he was right; it never died down. Every time he looked at her, his heart still raced like it did when he was a teenager. Like it did when she first noticed him.

* * *

 **This is the end! I hope you all liked it, and thank you for all of the support you gave me on this story. I'll miss writing it.  
**


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